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GUSTAVE 
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CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND &, PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

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Indianola, Winterset, Atlantic, Knoxville, Audubon, Harlan, Guthrie Centre and Council Bluffs, 
in Iowa, Gallatin, Trenton, Cameron, St. Joseph and Kansas City, in Missouri; Leavenworth and 
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Paul. Tne tourist route to all Northern Summer Resorts. Its Watertown Branch traverses th£ 
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COMPLETE CATALOGUE 

%■ i 4 of 

Lovell's Library. 


NEW YORK : 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, 
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LOVELL’S LIBRARY. 


COMPLETE CATALOGUE BY AUTHORS. 

Lovrll’s Library now contains tho complete writings of most of the best standard 
authors, such as Dickens, Thackeray, Eliot, Carlyle, Ruskin, Scott, Lytton, Black, etc., 
etc. 

Each number is issued in neat 12mo form, and the type will be found larger, and th® 
paper better, than in any other cheap series published. 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, 

P. 0. Box 1992. 14 and 10 Vesey Street, New York. 


BY AUTHOR OF “ ADDIE’S HUS- 


BAND ” 

1106 Jessie 20 

BY G. M. ADAM AND A. E. 
WETHERALD 

846 An Algonquin Maiden 20 

BY MAX ADELER 

295 Random Shots 20 

325 Elbow Room 20 

BY GUSTAVE AIMARD 

560 The Adventurers 10 

667 The Trail-Hunter 10 

673 Pearl of the Andes 10 

1011 Pirates of the Prairies 10 

1021 The Trapper’s Daughter 10 

1032 The Tiger Slayer 10 

1045 Trappers of Arkansas 10 

1052 Border Rifles 10 

1063 The Freebooters 10 

1069 The White Scalper 10 

1071 Guide of the Desert 10 

1075 The Insurgent Chief 10 

1079 The Flying Horseman 10 

1081 Last of the Ancas 10 

1086 Missouri Outlaws 10 

1089 Prairie Flower 10 

1098 Indian Scout 10 

1101 Stronghand 10 

1103 Bee Hunters 10 

1107 Stoneheart 10 

1112 Queen of the Savannah 10 

1115 The Buccaneer Chief 10 

1118 The Smuggler Hero 10 

1121 The Rebel Chief 10 

EY MRS. ALDERDICE 

346 An Interacting Case 20 

BY MRS. ALEXANDER 

62 The Wooing O’t, 2 Parts, each 15 

99 The Admiral’s Ward 20 

209 The Executor 20 

349 Valerie’s Fate 10 

664 At Bay 10 

746 Beaton’s Bargain 20 

777 A Second Life 20 

799 Maid, Wife, or Widow 10 

840 By Woman’s Wit 20 

995 Which Shall it Be? 20 

1044 Forging the Fetters 10 

1105 Mona’s Choice 20 


1 


BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN 


419 Fairy Tales 20 

BY F. ANSTEY 

30 Vice Vers&; or, A Lesson to Fathers. . 20 

394 The Giaut’s Robe 20 

453 Black Poodle, and Other Tales 20 

616 The Tinted Venus 15 

7.55 A Fallen Idol 20 

BY EDWIN ARNOLD 

436 The Light of Asia 20 

455 Pearls of the Faith 15 

472 Indian Song of Songs 10 

BY T. S. ARTHUR 

496 Woman’s Trials 20 

507 The Two Wives 15 

518 Married Life 15 

538 The Ways of Providence 15 

545 Horae Scenes 15 

554 Stories for Parents 15 

663 Seed-Time and Harvest 15 

568 Words for the Wise 15 

574 Stories for Young Housekeepers 15 

579 Lessons in Life 15 

582 Off-Hand Sketches 15 

585 Tried and Tempted 15 

BY EDWARD AVELING 

1066 An American Journey 30 

BY W. E. AYTOUN 

351 Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers 20 

BY ADAM BADEAU 

756 Conspiracy 25 

BY SIR SAMUEL BAKER 

206 Cast up by the Sea 20 

227 Rifle and Hound in Ceylon 20 

233 Eight Years’ Wandering in Ceylon . 20 

BY C. W. BALESTIER 

381 A Fair Device 2C 

405 Life of J. G. Blaine 20 

BY R. M. BALLANTYNE 

215 The Red Eric 20 

226 Tho Fire Brigade 20 

239 Erling the Bold 20 

241 Deep Down 20 

BY S. BARING-GOULD 

875 Little Tu’penny 10 

1(361 Red Spider 20 


LOVELL'S LIBRARY 


BY FRANK BARRETT 

1009 The Great Hesper 20 

BY GEORGE MIDDLETON BAYNE 

460 Galaski 20 

BY AUGUST BEBEL 

712 Woman 30 

BY MRS. E. BEDELL EENJAMIN 

718 Our Homan Palace 20 

1077 Jim, the Parson 20 

BY A. BENRIMO 

470 Vic 15 

BY E. BERGER 

901 Charles Auchcster 20 

BY W. BERGSOE 

77 Pillone 15 

BY E, BERTHET 

866 The Sergeant’s Legacy 20 

BY WALTER BESANT 

18 They Were Married 10 

103 Let Nothing Yon Dismay 10 

257 All in a Garden Fair 20 

268 When the Ship Comes Home 10 

884 Dorothy Forster 20 

699 Self or Bearer 10 

842 The World Went Very Well Then . .20 

847 The Holy Rose 10 

1002 To Call Her Mine 20 

1109 Katharine Regina 20 

BY EJORNSTJERNE BJ0RN30N 

3 The Happy Boy 10 

4 Arne 10 

BY WILLIAM BLACK 

40 An Adventure in Thule, etc 10 

48 A Princess of Thule 20 

82 A Daughter of Heth 20 

85 Shandon Bells 20 

93 Macleod of Dare 20 

136 Yolande 20 

142 Strange Adventures of a Phaeton. . . 20 

146 White Wings 20 

153 Sunrise, 2 Parts, each 15 

178 Madcap Violet 20 

180 Kilmeny 20 

182 That Beautiful Wretch 20 

184 Green Pastures, etc 20 

188 In Silk Attire 20 

213 The Three Feathers 20 

216 Lady Silverdale's Sweetheart 10 

217 The Four MacNicols 10 

218 Mr. Pisistratus Brown, M.P 10 

225 Oliver Goldsmith 10 

232 Monarch of Mincing Lane 20 

456 Judith Shakespeare 20 

584 Wise Women of Inverness 10 

678 White Heather 20 

958 Sabina Zembra 20 

BY LILLIE D. BLAKE 

105 Woman’s Place To-day 20 

597 Fettered for Life 25 

BY KEMPER BOCOCK 

1078 Tax the Area 20 


BY R. D. BLACKMORE 


851 Lorn a Doone, Part 1 20 

851 Lorna Doone, Part II. 20 

936 Maid of Sker 20 

955 Cradock Nowell, Part 1 20 

955 Cradock Nowell, Part II 20 

961 Springliaven 20 

1034 Mary Anerley 20 

1035 Alice Lorraine 20 

1036 Cristowell 20 

1037 Clara Vaughan 20 

1038 Cripps the Carrier 20 

1039 Remarkable History of Sir Thos. 

Upmore 20 

1040 Erema ; or, My Father’s Sin 20 

BY RHODA BROUGHTON 

23 Second Thoughts 20 

230 Belinda 20 

781 Betty’s Visions 15 

841 Dr. Cupid 20 

1022 Good-Bye, Sweetheart 20 

1023 Red as a Rose is She 20 

1024 Cometh up as a Flower 20 

1025 Not Wisely but too Well 20 

1026 Nancy 20 

1027 Joan 20 


716 


448 


74 

897 


88 

104 

214 

266 

444 

555 

588 

596 

698 

766 

783 

814 

868 

869 

870 

871 

872 
I 873 

877 

878 

879 

880 
SSI 
8S2 
883 
886 

887 

888 

889 

890 

892 

893 

894 


BY ANNIE BRADSHAW 

A Crimson Stain 20 

BY CHARLOTTE BREMER 

Life of Fredrika Bremer 20 

BY CHARLOTTE BRONTE 

Jane Eyre 20 

Shirley 20 


BY MISS M. E. BRADDON 

The Golden Call 

Lady Audley’s Secret 

Phantom Fortune 

Under the Red Flag 

An Ishmaelite 

Aurora Floyd 

To the Bitter End 

Dead Sea Fruit 

The Mistletoe Bough 

Vixen 

The Octoroon 

Mohawks 

One Thing Needful . 

Barbara ; or. Splendid Misery . . . . 

John Marchmont’s Legacy 

Joshua Haggard’s Daughter 

Taken at the Flood 

Asphodel 

The Doctor’s Wife 

Only a Clod 

Sir Jasper’s Tenant 

Lady’s Mile 

Birds of Prey 

Charlotte’s Inheritance 

Rupert Godwin 

Strangers and Pilgrims . 

A Strange World 

Mount Royal 

Just As I Am 

Dead Men’s Shoes 

Hostages to Fortune 

Fenton’s Quest 

The Cloven Foot 


. 2C 
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2 


LOVELL’S LIBRARY 


BY ELIZABETH BARRETT 


BROWNING 

421 Aurora Leigh 20 

479 Poems 36 

BY ROBERT EROWNING 

652 Selections from Poetical Works 20 

BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 

443 Poems 20 

BY ROBERT BUCHANAN 

31S The New Abelard 20 

096 The Master of the Mine 10 

BY JOHN BUNYAN 

200 The Pilgrim’s Progress 20 

BY ROBERT BURNS 

430 Poems 20 

EY REV. JAS. S. BUSH 

jil3 More Words about the Bible 20 

BY E. LASSETER BYNNER 

100 Nimport, 2 Parts, each 15 

102 Tritons, 2 Parts, each 15 

BY THOMAS CAMPBELL 

526 Poems 20 

BY LEWIS CARROLL 

480 Alice’s Adventures 20 

4S1 Through the Looking-Glass 20 

BY THOMAS CARLYLE 

4S6 History of French Revolution, 2 

Parts, each 25 

494 Past and Present 20 

500 The Diamond Necklace ; and Mira- 

beau 20 

603 Chartism 20 

608 Sartor Resartus : 20 

614 Early Kings of Norway 20 

520 Jean Paul Friedrich Richter 10 

522 Goethe, and Miscellaneous Essays. . .10 

525 Life of Heyne 15 

628 Voltaire and Novalis 15 

641 Heroes, and Hero-Worship 20 

646 Signs of the Times 15 

650 German Literature 15 

561 Portraits of John Knox 15 

571 Count Cagliostro, etc 15 

678 Frederick the Great, Vol. I 20 

580 “ “ “ Vol. IT 20 

691 “ “ “ Vol. Ill 20 

610 “ “ “ Vol. IV 20 

619 “ “ “ Vol. V 20 

622 “ “ “ Vol. VI 20 

626 “ “ “ Vol. VII 20 

62S “ « “ Vol. VIII 20 

630 Life of John Sterling 20 

683 Latter-Day Pamphlets 20 

636 Life of Schiller 20 

613 Oliver Cromwell, Vol. 1 26 

646 “ “ Vol. II 25 

649 “ “ Vol. Ill 25 

652 Characteristics and other Essays. . . 15 
656 Corn Law Rhymes and other Essays. 15 
658 Baillie the Covenanter and other Es- 
says 15 

661 Dr. Francia and other Essays 15 

1088 Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, 

9 Povfo AfipVi on 

1090 Wilhelm Meister’s Travels 20 


BY ROSA NOUCHETE CAREY 


660 For Lilias 20 

911 Not Like other Girls 20 

912 Robert Ord’s Atonement 20 

959 Wee Wifie 20 

960 Wooed and Married 20 

BY WM. CARLETON 

190 Wiily Reilly 20 

820 Shane Fadh’s Wedding 10 

821 Larry McFarland’s Wake 10 

822 The Party Fight and Funeral 10 

823 The Midnight Mass 10 

824 Phil Purcel 10 

825 An Irish Oath 10 

826 Going to Maynooth 10 

827 Phelim O’Toole’s Courtship 10 

828 Dominick, the Poor Scholar 10 

829 Neal Malone 10 

BY “CAVENDISH” 

422 Cavendish Card Essays. 15 

BY CERVANTES 

417 Don Quixote 8U 

BY L. W. CHAMPNEY 

119 Bourbon Lilies 20 

BY VICTOR CHERBULIEZ 

242 Samuel Brohl & Co 20 

BY REV. JAS. FREEMAN CLARK 

167 Anti-Slavery Days 20 

BY CRISTABEL E. COLERIDGE 

1028 A Near Relation 20 

BY S. T. COLERIDGE 

523 Poems 30 

BY J. FENIMORE COOPER 

6 The Last of the Mohicans 20 

53 The Spy 20 

365 The Pathfinder 20 

378 Homeward Bound 20 

441 Home as Found 20 

463 The Deerslayer 30 

467 The Prairie 20 

471 The Pioneer 25 

484 The Two Admirals 20 

488 The Water- Witch 20 

491 The Red Rover 20 

501 The Pilot 20 

506 Wing and Wing 20 

512 Wyandotte 20 

517 Heidenmauer 20 

519 The Headsman 20 

524 The Bravo 20 

527 Lionel Lincoln 20 

529 Wept of Wish-ton- Wish £0 

532 Afloat and Ashore 20 

539 Miles Wallingford 20 

543 The Moni ki ns 20 

548 Mercedes of Castile 20 

553 The Sea Lions 20 

559 The Crater 20 

562 Oak Openings 20 

570 Satanstoe 20 

576 The Chain-Bearer 20 

587 Ways of the Hour 20 

60 1 Precaution 20 

603 Redskins 25 

6M Jack Tier 20 


3 


LOVELL 7 S LIBRARY. 


BY BERTHA M, CLAY 


183 Her Mother's Sin 20 

277 Dora Thorne 20 

287 Beyond Pardon 20 

420 A Broken Wedding-Ring ...20 

423 Repented at Leisure 20 

45S Sunshine and Roses 20 

405 The Earl's Atonement 20 

474 A Woman's Temptation 20 

476 Love Works Wonders *..20 

658 Fair but False 10 

593 Between Two Sins 10 

651 At War with Herself 15 

669 Hilda 10 

689 Her Martyrdom 20 

692 Lord Lynn’s Choice 10 

694 The Shadow of a Sin 10 

695 Wedded and Parted 10 

700 In Cupid’s Net 10 

701 Lady Darner’s Secret 20 

718 A Gilded Sin 10 

720 Between Two Loves 20 

727 For Another’s Sin 20 

730 Romance of a Young Girl 20 

733 A Queen Amongst Women 10 

738 A Golden Dawn 10 

739 Like no Other Love 10 

740 A Bitter Atonement 20 

744 Evelyn's Folly 20 

752 Set in Diamonds 20 

764 A Fair Mystery 20 

800 Thorns and Orange Blossoms 10 

801 Romance of a Black Veil 10 

803 Love's Warfare 10 

804 Madulin's Lover 20. 

806 From Out the Gloom 20 

807 Wliich Loved Him Best 10 

808 A True Magdalen 20 

809 The Sin of a Lifetime 20 

810 Prince Charlie's Daughter 10 

811 A Golden Heart 10 

812 Wife in Name Only. 20 

815 A Woman's Error 20 

896 Marjorie 20 

922 A Wilful Maid 20 

923 Lady Castlemaine’s Divorce 20 

926 Claribel's Love Story 20 

928 Thrown on the World 20 

929 Under a Shadow 20 

930 A Struggle for a Ring 20 

932 Hilary's Folly 20 

933 A Haunted Life 20 

934 A Woman's Love Story 20 

969 A Woman's War 20 

984 'Twixt Smile and Tear 20 

985 Lady Diana’s Pride 20 

986 Belle of Lynn 20 

988 Marjorie's Fate 20 

989 Sweet Cymbeline 20 

1007 Redeemed by Love 20 

1012 Tne Squire's Darling 10 

1013 The Mystery of Colde Fell 20 

1030 On Her Wedding Morn 10 

1031 The Shattered Idol 10 

1033 Letty Leigh 10 

1041 The Mystery of the Holly Tree 10 

1042 The Earl’s Error . .10 

1043 Arnold’s Promise 10 

1051 At? Unnatural Bondage 10 

1064 The Duke's Secret 20 


BY WILKIE COLLINS 


8 The Moonstone, Part 1 14 

9 The Moonstone, Part II 10 

24 The New Magdalen 20 

87 Heart and Science 2(1 

418 “I Say No" 28 

437 Tales of Two Idle Apprentices 15 

683 The Ghost's Touch 10 

686 My Lady's Money 10 

722 The Evil Genius 20 

839 The Guilty River 10 

957 The Dead Secret 2© 

996 The Queen of Hearts 20 

1003 The Haunted Hotel 10 

BY HUGH CONWAY 

429 Called Back 15 

4G2 Dark Days 15 

612 Carriston’s Gift 10 

617 Paul Vargas: a Mystery 10 

631 A Family Affair 20 

667 Story of a Sculptor „ , . . 10 

672 Slings and Arrows 10 

715 A Cardinal Sin. . . . 20 

745 Living or Dead 20 

750 Somebody's Story 10 

968 Bound by a Spell 20 

BY C. H. W. COOK 

1099 The True Solution of the Labor 
Question 10 

BY KINAHAN CORNWALLIS 

409 Adrift with a Vengeance 25 

BY GEORGIANA M. CRAIK 

1006 A Daughter of the People 20 

BY R. CRISWELL 

350 Grandfather Lickshingle 20 

BY R. H. DANA, JR. 

464 Two Years before the Mast 20 

BY DANTE 

345 Dante's Vision of Hell, Purgatory, 

and Paradise 20 

BY FLORA A. DARLING 

260 Mrs. Darling's War Letters 20 

BY JOYCE DARRELL 

315 Winifred Power 20 

BY ALPHONSE DAUDET 

478 Tartarin of Tarascon 20 

604 Sidonie 20 

613 Jack 20 

615 The Little Good-for-Nothing 20 

645 The Nabob 25 

BY REV. C. H. DAVIES, D.D. 

453 Mystic London 20 

BY THE DEAN OF ST. PAUL’S 

431 Life of Spenser 10 

BY C. DEBANS 

475 A Sheep in Wolfs Clothing 20 

BY REV. C. F. DEEKS, D.D. 

704 Evolution 20 

BY DANIEL DEFOE 

428 Robinson Crusoe 25 


4 


LOVELL’S LIBRARY 


BY THOS. BE QUINCEY 


20 The Spanish Nun 10 

1070 Confessions of an English Opium 

Eater 20 

BY CARL DETLEF 

29 Irene; or, The Lonely Manor 20 

BY CHARLES DICKENS 

10 Oliver Twist 20 

38 A Tale of Two Cities 20 

75 Child’s History of England 20 

91 Pickwick Papers, 2 Parts, each 20 

140 The Cricket on the Hearth 10 

144 Old Curiosity Shop, 2 Parts, each.. . 15 

150 Barnaby Rudge, 2 Parts, each 15 

158 David Copperfield, 2 Parts, each 20 

170 Hard Times 20 

192 Great Expectations 20 

201 Martin Chuzzlewit, 2 Parts, each. . ..20 

210 American Notes . . 20 

219 Dombey and Son, 2 Parts, each 20 

223 Little Dorrit, 2 Parts, each 20 

228 Our Mutual Friend, 2 Parts, each... 20 

231 Nicholas Nickleby, 2 Parts, each 20 

234 Pictures from Italy 15 

237 The Boy at Mugby 10 

244 Bleak House, 2 Parts, each 20 

246 Sketches of the Young Couples 10 

261 Master Humphrey’s Clock 10 

267 The Haunted House, etc 10 

270 The Mudfog Papers, etc 10 

273 Sketches by Boz 20 

274 A Christmas Carol, etc 15 

2S2 Uncommercial Traveller 20 

288 Somebody’s Luggage, etc 10 

293 The Battle of Life, etc 10 

297 Mystery of Edwin Drood 20 

298 Reprinted Pieces 20 

302 No Thoroughfare 15 

437 Tales of Two Idle Apprentices 10 

BY PROF. DOWDEN 

404 Life of Southey 10 

BY JOHN DRYDEN 

^©8 Poems 30 

BY THE “DUCHESS” 

68 Portia 20 

76 Molly Ba\v» 20 

78 Phyllis 20 

86 Monica 10 

90 Mrs. Geoffrey 20 

92 Airy Fairy Lilian 20 

126 Loys, Lord Beresford 20 

132 Moonshine and Marguerites 10 

162 Faith and Unfaith 20 

168 Beauty’s Daughters 20 

284 Rossmoyne 20 

451 Doris 20 

477 A Week in Killarney 10 

680 In Durance Vile 10 

618 Dick’s Sweetheart ; or, “ O Tender 

Dolores” 20 

621 A Maiden all Forlorn 10 

624 A Passive Crime 10 

721 Lady Branksmere 20 

735 A Mental Struggle 20 

737 The Haunted Chamber 10 

792 Her’Week's Amusement 10 

802 Lady Valworth's Diamonds 20 

1065 A Modern Circe 20 

1072 The Duchess 20 


BY F. DU BOISGOBEY 

1018 The Condemned Door 21 

1080 The Blue Veil; or, The Crime of 

the Tower 20 

1120 The Matapan Affair 20 

BY LORD DUFFERIN 

95 Letters from High Latitudes 20 

BY ALEXANDRE DUMAS, JR. 

992 Camille 16 

BY ALEXANDRE DUMAS 

761 Count of Monte Cristo, Part 1 20 

761 Count of Monte Cristo, Part II 20 

775 The Three Guardsmen 20 

786 Twenty Years After 20 

884 The Son of Monte Cristo, Part I. . . .20 

884 The Son of Monte Cristo, Part II. . . 20 

885 Monte Cristo and His Wife 20 

891 Countess of Monte Cristo, Part I... 20 
891 Countess of Monte Cristo, Part II.. .20 
998 Beau Tancrede 20 

BY MRS. ANNIE EDWARDS 

681 A Girton Girl 20 

BY M. BETHAM-EDWARDS 

203 Disarmed 15 

663 The Flower of Doom 10 

1005 Next of Kin 20 

BY GEORGE ELIOT 

56 Adam Bede, 2 Parts, each 15 

69 Amos Barton 10 

71 Silas Marner 10 

79 Romola, 2 Parts, each 15 

119 Janet’s Repentance 10 

151 Felix Ilolt 20 

174 Middlcmarch, 2 Parts, each 20 

195 Daniel Deronda, 2 Parts, each 20 

202 Theophrastus Such 10 

205 The Spanish Gypsy,and other Poems20 

207 The Mill on the Floss, 2 Parts, each. 15 

208 Brother Jacob, eve 10 

374 Essays, and Leaves from a Note- 

Book 20 

BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

373 Essays 20 

ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 
EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY 

348 Bunyan, by J. A. Fronde 10 

407 Burke, by John Morley 10 

334 Burns, by Principal Shnirp 10 

347 Byron, by Professor Nichol 10 

413 Chaucer, by Prof. A. W. Ward 10 

424 Cowper, by Gold win Smith 10 

377 Defoe, by William Minto 10 

383 Gibbon, by J. C. Morrison. 10 

225 Goldsmith, by William Black 10 

369 Hume, by Professor Huxley 10 

401 Johnson, by Leslie Stephen 10 

380 Locke, by Thomas Fowler 10 

392 Milton, by Mark Pattison 10 

398 Pope, by Leslie Stephen 10 

364 Scott, by R. H. Hutton 10 

361 Shelley, by J. Symonds 10 

404 Southey, by Professor Dowden. ...10 

431 Spenser, by the Dean of St. Paul’s ..10 

344 Thackeray, by Anthony Trollope. ..10 

410 Wordsworth, by F. Myers 10 


5 


LOVELL’S LIBRARY 


BY B. L. FABJEON 

843 Gautran ; or, House of White Shad- 


ows 20 

654 Love’s Harvest 20 

874 Nine of Hearts 20 

BY HARKIET FARLEY 

473 Christmas Stories 20 

BY F. W. FARRAR, D.D. 

19 Seekers after God 20 

50 Early Days of Christianity, 2 Darts, 
each 20 

BY GEORGE MANNVILLE FENN 

1004 This Man’s Wife 20 

1060 The Bag of Diamonds 20 

BY OCTAVE FEUILLET 

41 A Marriage in High Life 20 

987 Romance of a Poor Young Man 10 

BY MRS. FORRESTER 

760 Fair Women 20 

818 Once Again 20 

843 My Lord and My Lady 20 

844 Dolores 20 

850 My Hero 20 

859 Viva 20 

860 Omnia Vanitas 10 

861 Diana Carew 20 

862 From Olympus to Hades 20 

863 Rhona 20 

864 Roy and Viola 20 

866 June 20 

866 Mignon 20 

867 A Young Man’s Fancy 20 

BY FRIEDRICH. BARON DE LA 
MOTTE FOUQUE 

711 Undine 10 

BY THOMAS FOWLER 

380 Life of Locke 10 

BY FRANCESCA 

177 The Story of Ida 10 

BY R. E. FRANCILLON 

319 A Real Queen 20 

856 Golden Bells 10 

BY ALBERT FRANKLYN 

122 Ameline de Bourg 15 

BY L. VIRGINIA FRENCH 

485 My Roses 20 

BY J. A. FROUDE 

348 Life of Bunyac 10 

BY EMILE GABORIAU 

114 Monsieur Lecoq, 2 Parts, each 20 

116 The Lerouge Case 20 

120 Other People’s Money. 20 

129 In Peril of His Life 20 

138 The Gilded Clique 20 

155 Mystery of Orcival 20 

161 Promise of Marriage 10 

258 File No. 118 20 

1119 The Little Old Man of the Bati- 

gnolles 20 

1123 The Count’s Millions, Part 1 20 

“ “ “ Part II 20 


BY HENRY GEORGE 

52 Progress and Poverty 

390 Land Question 

393 Social Problems 

796 Property in Land 


20 

15 


BY CHARLES GIBBON 

57 The Golden Shaft 20 

BY J. W. VON GOETHE 

342 Goethe's Faust 20 

343 Goethe's Poems 2t 

1088 Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, 

2 Parts, each 2( 

1090 Wilhelm Meister's Travels 20 

BY NIKOLAI V. GOGOL 

1016 Taras Bulba 20 

BY OLIVER GOLDSMITH 

51 Vicar of Wakefield 13 

362 Plays and Poems 20 

BY MRS. GORE 

89 The Dean’s Daughter 20 

BY JAMES GRANT 

49 The Secret Despatch 20 

BY HENRI GREVILLE 

1001 Frankley 20 


BY CECIL GRIFFITH 

732 Victory Deane 21 

BY ARTHUR GRIFFITHS 

709 No. 99 10 

THE BROTHERS GRIMM 

221 Fairy Tales, Illustrated 2? 


BY LAURENCE GEONLUND 

1096 The Co-operative Commonwealth. .30 


BY LIEUT. J. W. GUNNISON 

440 History of the Mormons 15 


BY F. W, HACKLANDER 

606 Forbidden Fruit 20 


BY ERNST HAECKEL 

97 India and Ceylon 20 

BY H. RIDER HAGGARD 

813 King Solomon’s Mines 20 

848 She 20 

876 The Witch’s Head 20 

900 Jess 2(1 

941 Dawn 20 

1020 Allan Quatermain 5(0 

1100 Tale of Three Lions 1? 

BY A. EGMONT HAKE 

371 The Story of Chinese Gordon 21’ 

BY LUDOVIC HALEVY 


15 L’Abb6 Constantin 20 

BY THOMAS HARDY 

43 Two on a Tower 20 

157 Romantic Adventures of a Milk- 
maid 10 

749 The Mayor of Casterbridge 20 

956 The Woodlanders 20 

964 Far from the Madding Crowd 28 

BY MARION HARLAND 

107 Housekeeping and Homemaking.. . .19 


0 


LOVELL’S LIBRARY 


f BY JOHN HARRISON AND M. 

COMPTON 535 

414 Over the Summer Sea 20 

BY J. B. HARWOOD 6 1 

269 One False, both Fair 20 186 


BY JOHN W. HOYT, LL.D. 


Studies in Civil Service IS 

BY THOMAS HUGHES 

Tom Brown’s School Days ...... . 


Tom Brown at Oxford, 2 Parts, each. 16 


BY JOSEPH HATTON 

7 Clytie 20 

J87 Cruel Lon don 20 

BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

870 Twice Told Tales 20 

876 Grandfather’s Chair 20 

BY MARY CECIL HAY 

466 Under the Will 10 

566 The Arundel Motto 20 

590 Old Myddleton’s Money 20 

787 A Wicked Girl 10 

971 Nora’s Love Test 20 

972 The Squire’s Legacy 20 

973 Dorothy’s Venture 20 

974 My First Offer 10 

975 Back to the Old Home 10 

976 For Her Dear Sake 20 

977 Hidden Perils 20 

978 Victor and Vanquished 20 

1029 Brenda Yorke 10 

BY MRS. FELICIA HEMANS 

583 Poems 30 

BY DAVID J. HILL, LL.D. 

533 Principles and Fallacies of Social- 
ism 15 


BY M. L. HOLBROOK, M.D. 

356 Hygiene of the Brain 25 

BY MRS. M. A. HOLMES 

709 Woman against Woman 20 

743 A Woman’s Vengeance 20 

BY PAXTON HOOD 

73 Life of Cromwell 15 

BY THOMAS HOOD 

511 Poems 3C 

BY HORRY AND WEEMS 

36 Life of Marion 20 

BY ROBERT HOUDIN 

14 The Tricks of the Greeks 20 

BY ADAH M. HOWARD 

970 Against Her Will 20 

993 The Child Wife 10 

BY MARIE HOWLAND 

534 Papa’s Own Girl 30 


BY EDWARD HOWLAND 


742 

Soeial Solutions, 

Parti 


747 

1* 

44 

Part II 

10 

753 

44 

44 

Part III 


762 

44 

44 

Part IV 


765 

44 

44 

Part V 

10 

774 

44 

44 

Part VI 


778 

a 

4 

Part VII 


782 

a 

44 

Part VIII .... 

....10 

785 

a 

ii 

Part IX 

....10 

788 

u 

44 

Part X 

....10 

791 

ii 

44 

Part XI 

10 

796 

44 

6 

41 

Part XII 



BY VICTOR HUGO 

784 Les Misdrables, Part 1 20 

784 “ “ Part II 20 

784 “ “ Part III 20 

BY STANLEY HUNTLEY 

109 The Spoopendyke Papers 20 

BY R. H. HUTTON 

364 Life of Scott 2C 

BY PROF. HUXLEY 

369 Life of Hume 10 

BY WASHINGTON IRVING 

147 The Sketch Book 20 

198 Tales of a Traveller 20 

199 Life and Voyages of Columbus, 

Part 1 20 

Life and Voyages of Columbus, 

Part II 20 

224 Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey. . .10 

236 Knickerbocker History of New York. 20 

249 The Crayon Papers 20 

263 The Alhambra 15 

272 Conquest of Granada 20 

279 Conquest of Spain 10 

281 Bracebridge Hall 20 

290 Salmagundi 20 

299 Astoria 20 

301 Spanish Voyages 20 

305 A Tour on the Prairies 10 

308 Life of Mahomet, 2 Parts, each 15 

310 Oliver Goldsmith 20 

311 Captain Bonneville 20 

314 Moorish Chronicles 10 

321 Wolfert’s Roost and Miscellanies 10 

BY HARRIET JAY 

17 The Dark Colleen 20 

BY SAMUEL JOHNSON 

44 Rasselas 10 

BY MAURICE JOKAI 

754 A Modern Midas 20 

BY JOHN KEATS 

531 Poems 25 

BY EDWARD KELLOGG 

111 Labor and Capital 20 

BY GRACE KENNEDY 

106 Dunallan, 2 Parts, each 15 

BY JOHN P. KENNEDY 

67 Horse-Shoe Robinson, 2 Parts, each .15 

BY CHARLES KINGSLEY 

39 The Hermits 20 

64 Hypatia, 2 Parts, each 15 

BY HENRY KINGSLEY 

726 Austin Eliot 20 

728 The Hillyars and Burtons 20 

731 Leighton Court 20 

736 Geoffrey Hamlyn 30 


7 


LOVELL’S library. 


BY W. H. G. KINGSTON 

864 Peter the Whaler 20 

322 Mark Seaworth 20 

324 Round the World 20 

335 The Young Foresters 20 

337 Saltwater 20 

633 The Midshipman 20 

BY F. KIRBY 

464 The Golden Dog ( Le chien d'or) 40 

« BY A. LA POINTE 

^445 The Rival Doctors 20 

BY MISS MARGARET LEE 

25 Divorce 20 

600 A Brighton Night 20 

725 Dr. Wilmer’s Love 25 

741 Lorimer and Wife 20 

BY VERNON LEE 

797 A Phantom Lover 10 

798 Prince of the Hundred Soups 10 

BY JULES LERMINA 

469 The Chase 20 

BY CHARLES LEVER 

827 Harry Lorreqner .20 

789 Charles O’Malley, 2 Parts, each 20 

794 Tom Burke of Ours, 2 Parts, each . . 20 

BY H. W. LONGFELLOW 

1 Hyperion 20 

2 Outre-Mer 20 

482 Poems 20 

BY SAMUEL LOVER 

163 The Happy Man 10 

719 Rory O’ More 20 

849 Handy Andy 20 

BY LORD LYTTON 

11 The Coming Race 10 

12 Leila 10 

81 Ernest Maltravers 20 

32 The Haunted House 10 

45 Alice: A Sequel to Ernest Maltra- 
vers 20 

55 A Strange Story 20 

59 Last Days of Pompeii 20 

81 Zanoni 20 

84 Night and Morning, 2 Parts, each. .15 

117 Paul Clifford 20 

121 Lady of Lyons 10 

128 Money 10 

152 Richelieu 1G 

160 Rienzi, 2 Parts, each 15 

176 Pelham 20 

204 Eugene Aram 20 

222 The Disowned 20 

240 Kenelm Chillingly 20 

245 What Will He Do with It ? 2 Parts, 

each 20 

247 Devereux 20 

250 The Caxtons, 2 Parts, each 15 

253 Lucretia 20 

255 Last of the Barons, 2 Parts, each ... 15 

259 The Parisians. 2 Parts, each 20 

271 My Novel, 3 Parts, each 20 

276 Harold, 2 Parts, each 15 

289 Godolphin 20 

294 Pilgrims of the Rhine 15 

817 Pausanias 15 


BY COMMANDER LOVFTT-CAM- 
ERON. 

817 The Cruise of the Black Prince. . . .2 4 

BY MRS. H. LOVETT-CAMERON 


927 Pure Gold 20 

BY HENRY W. LUCY 

96 Gideon Fleyce 20 

BY HENRY C. LUKENS 

131 Jets and Flashes 2f 

BY EDNA LYALL 

962 ICnights-Errant 29 

BY E. LYNN LYNTON 

275 lone Stewart 29 

BY LORD MACAULAY 

333 Lays of Ancient Rome 20 

BY KATHERINE S- MACQUOID 

898 Joan Wentworth 20 

BY E. MARLITT 

771 The Old Mam’selle’s Secret 20 

1053 Gold Elsie 20 

BY CAPTAIN MARRYAT 

212 The Privateersman 20 

BY FLORENCE MARRYAT. 

903 The Master Passion 20 

904 A Lucky Disappointment 10 

905 Her Lord and Master 20 

906 My Own Child 20 

907 No Intentions 20 

908 Written in Fire 20 

909 A Little Stepson 10 

910 With Cupid’s Eyes 20 

931 Why Not? 20 

937 My Sister the Actress 20 

938 Captain Norton’s Diary 10 

939 Girls of Feversham 20 

940 The Root of all Evil 20 

942 Facing the Footlights 20 

943 Petronel 20 

944 A Star and a Heart .10 

945 Angc 20 

946 A Harvest of Wild Oats 20 

947 The Poison of Asps 10 

948 Fair-Haired Alda 20 

949 The Heir Presumptive 20 

950 Under the Lilies and Roses 20 

951 Heart of Jane Warner 20 

952 Love’s Conflict, Parti 20 

952 Love’s Conflict, Part II 20 

953 Phyllida 20 

954 Out of His Reckoning 10 

979 Her World against a Lie 20 

990 Open Sesame 20 

991 Mad Dumaresq 20 

999 Fighting the Air 20 

BY HELEN MATHERS 

165 Eyre's Acquittal 10 

1046 Cornin’ Thro’ the Rye 20 

1047 Sam’s Sweetheart 20 

1048 Story of a Sin 20 

1049 Chorry Ripe 20 

1050 My Lady Green Sleeves .31 


8 


loyell’s library. 


BY HARRIET MARTINEAU 


353 Tales of the French Revolution 15 

354 Loom and Lugger 20 

367 Berkeley the Banker 20 

358 Homes Abroad 15 

363 For Each and For All 15 

372 Hill and Valley 15 

379 The Charmed Sea 15 

388 Life in the Wilds 15 

395 Sowers not Reapers 15 

400 Glen of the Echoes 15 

BY A. MATHEY 

46 DukeofKandos 20 

60 The Two Duchesses 20 

BY W. S. MAYO 

70 The Berber 20 

by j. h. McCarthy 

115 An Outline of Irish History 10 

by justin McCarthy, m.p. 

278 Maid of Athens 20 

BY T. L. MEADE 

328 How It All Came Round 20 

BY OWEN MEREDITH 

331 Lucile 20 

BY JOHN MILTON 

389 Paradise Lost 20 

1092 Poems 35 

BY WILLIAM MINTO 

377 Life of Defoe 10 

BY MRS. MOLESWORTH 

1008 Marrying and Giving in Marriage ..10 

BY SUSANNA MOODIE 

1067 Geoffrey Moncton 30 

1068 Flora Lyndsay 20 

1074 Roughing it in the Bush 20 

1076 Life in the Backwoods 20 

1085 Life in the Clearings 20 

BY THOMAS MOORE 

416 Lalla Rookh 20 

487 Poems 40 

BY JOHN MOSLEY 

407 Life of Burke 10 

BY J. C. MORRISON 

383 Life of Gibbon 10 

BY EDWARD H. MOTT 

139 Pike County Folks 20 

BY ALAN MUIR 

SI 2 Golden Girls 20 

BY LOUISA MUHLBACH 

1000 Frederick the Great and his Court. .30 

1014 The Daughter of an Empress 30 

1054 Goethe and Schiller 30 

1091 Queen Hortense 30 

BY MAX MULLER 

130 India: What Can It Teach Us ? 20 

BY MISS MULOCK 

33 John Halifax 20 

435 Miss Tommy 15 

751 King Arthur * 20 


BY DAVID CHRISTIE MURRAY 


197 By the Gate of the Sea li 

758 Cynic Fortune 10 

1116 One Traveller Returns 20 

BY F. MYERS 

410 Life of Wordsworth 10 

BY FLORENCE NEELY 

564 Hand-Book for the Kitchen 2<? 

BY REV. R. H. NEWTON 

83 Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible . . 2C 

BY JOHN NICHOL 

347 Life of Byron 10 

BY JAMES R. NICHOLS, M.D. 

375 Science at Home 20 

BY W. E. NORRIS 

108 No New Thing 20 

592 That Terrible Man 10 

779 My Friend Jim 10 

BY CHRISTOPHER NORTH 

439 Noctes Ambrosian® 30 

BY F. E. M. NOTLEY 

1095 From the Other Side 20 

BY LAURENCE OLIPHANT 

196 Altiora Peto 20 

BY MRS. OLIPHANT 

124 The Ladies Lind ores 20 

179 The Little Pilgrim 10 

175 Sir Tom 20 

326 The Wizard’s Son 25 

368 Old Lady Mary 10 

602 Oliver’s Bride 10 

717 A Country Gentleman 20 

831 The Son of his Father 20 

920 John : a Love Story 20 

925 A Poor Gentleman 20 

994 Lucy C ro f ton 10 

BY MAX O’RELL 

336 John Bull and His Island 20 

459 John Bull and His Daughters 20 

BY OUIDA 

112 Wanda. 2 Parts, each 15 

127 Under Two Flags, 2 Parts, each.... 20 

3S7 Princess Napraxine 25 

675 A Rainy June 10 

763 Moths 20 

790 Othmar 20 

805 A House Party 10 

852 Friendship 20 

853 In Maremma 20 

854 Signa 20 

855 Pascarel 20 

BY ALBERT K. OWEN 

655 Integral Co-operation 30 

BY LOUISA PARR 

42 Robin 20 

BY MARK PATTISON 

392 Life of Milton 10 

BY JAMES PAYN 

187 Thicker than Water 20 

330 The Canon’s Ward 20 

059 Luck of the Darrells 26 


9 


LOVELL’S LIBRARY. 


BY HENRY PETERSON 
1015 Pemberton 30 

BY F. C. PHILLIPS 

10S2 Strange Adventures of Lucy Smith .20 

1083 As in a Looking Glass 20 

1084 The Dean and his Daughter 20 

1007 Jack and Three Jills 20 

BY EDGAR ALLAN POE 

403 Poems 20 

426 Narrative of A. Gordon Pym 15 

432 Gold Bug, and Other Tales 15 

438 The Assignation, and Other Tales. .15 
447 The Murders in the Rue Morgue. . . .15 

BY WILLIAM POLE, F.R.S. 


406 The Theory of the Modern Scien- 


tific Game of Whist 15 

BY ALEXANDER POPE 

391 Homer's Odyssey 20 

396 Homer’s Iliad 30 

457 Poems 30 

BY JANE PORTER 

189 Scottish Chiefs, Part 1 20 

Scottish Chiefs, Part II 20 

382 Thaddeus of Warsaw 25 

BY C. F. POST AND FRED. C. 
LEUBUCHER 

838 The George-Hewitt Campaign 20 

BY ADELAIDE A. PROCTER 

339 Poems 20 

BY AGNES RAY 

1010 Mrs. Gregory 20 

BY CHARLES READE 

28 Singleheart and Doubleface 10 

415 A Perilous Secret 20 

759 Foul Play 20 

773 Put Yourself in his Place 20 

913 Griffith Gaunt. 20 

914 A Terrible Temptation 20 

915 Very Hard Cash 20 

916 It is Never Too Late to Mend 20 

917 The Knightsbridge Mystery 10 

918 A Woman Hater 20 

919 Readiana 10 

BY REBECCA FERGUS REDD 

16 Freckles 20 

408 The Brierfield Tragedy 20 

BY “ RITA’' 

556 Dame Durden 20 

599 Like Dian’s Kiss 20 

BY SIR H. ROBERTS 

101 Harry Holbrooke 20 

BY A. M. F. ROBINSON 

134 Arden 15 

BY REGINA MARIA ROCHE 

411 Children of the Abbey 30 

ROLLIN’ S ANCIENT HISTORY. 

1108 Volume 1 20 

1111 “ II 20 

1114 “ III 20 

1117 “ IV 20 

1122 “ V 20 

1125 “ VI 20 

1128 “ VII 20 

1131 “VIII 20 


BY BLANCHE ROOSEVELT 

837 Marked “ In Haste ” 2® 

BY DANTE ROSSETTI 

329 Poems 20 

BY JOHN RUSKIN 

497 Sesame and Lilies 10 

505 Crown of Wild Olives 10 

510 Ethics of the Dust 10 

516 Queen of the Air 10 

521 Seven Lamps of Architecture 20 

537 Lectures on Architecture and Paint- 
ing 15 

542 Stones of Venice, 3 Vols., each 25 i 

565 Modern Painters, Vol. 1 20 

572 “ “ Vol. II 20 

577 “ “ Vol. Ill 20 

589 “ “ Vol. IV 25 

608 “ “ Vol. V 25 

598 King of the Golden River 10 

623 Unto this Last. 10 

627 Munera Pulveris 15 

637 “ A Joy Fore ver ” 15 

639 The Pleasures of England 10 

642 The Two Paths 20 

644 Lectures on Art 15 

647 Aratra Pentelici .15 

650 Time and Tide 15 

665 Mornings in Florence 15 

668 St. Mark’s Rest 15 

670 Deucalion 15 

673 Art of England 15 

676 Eagle’s Nest 15 

679 ‘ Our Fathers Have Told Us” 15 

682 Proserpina 15 

685 Val d’Amo 15 

688 Love’s Meinie 15 

707 Fors Clavigera, Part I. 30 

708 “ “ Part II 30 

713 “ “ Part III 30 

714 “ “ Part IV 80 

BY MRS. ROWSON 

159 Charlotte Temple 10 

BY W. CLARK RUSSELL 

123 A Sea Queen 20 

399 John Holds worth 20 

833 A Voyage to the Cape 20 

834 Jack’s Courtship 20 

835 A Sailor’s Sweetheart 20 

836 On the Fo’k’sle Head .20 

997 The Golden Hope 20 

1087 The Frozen Pirate 20 

BY DORA RUSSELL 

816 The Broken Seal 20 

BY GEORGE SAND 

135 The Tower of Percemont 20 

965 The Li lic3 of Florence 20 

BY J. X. B. SAINTINE 

710 Picciola 10 

BY MRS. W. A. SAVILLE 

27 Social Etiquette 15 

BY DR. E. J. SCHELLEOUS 

1094 The New Republic 30 

BY J. C. F. VON SCHILLER 

341 Schiller’s Poems 20 

BY MICHAEL SCOTT 

171 Tom Cringle’s Log ... .20 


10 


LOVELL’S LIBRARY 


BY SIR WALTER SCOTT 

145 Ivanhoe, 2 Tarts, each 15 

359 Lady of the Lake, with. Notes 20 

489 Bride of Latnmermoor 20 

490 Black Dwarf 10 

492 Castle Dangerous 15 

493 Legend of Montrose 15 

495 The Surgeon’s Daughter 10 

499 Heart of Mid-Lothian 30 

502 Wavcrley 20 

504 For tu nes of N igel 20 

509 Peveril of the Peak 30 

515 The Pirate 20 

586 Poetical Works 40 

544 Redgauntlet 25 

551 W oodstock 20 

557 Count Robert of Paris 20 

669 The Abbot 20 

575 Quentin Durward 20 

581 The Talisman 20 

586 St. Ronan’s Well 20 

595 Anne of Geierstein 20 

605 Aunt Margaret’s Mirror 10 

607 Chronicles of the Canongate 15 

609 The Monastery 20 

620 Guy Mannering 20 

625 Kenilworth 25 

629 The Antiquary 20 

632 Rob Roy 20 

635 The Betrothed 20 

6-38 Fair Maid of Perth 20 

641 Old Mortality 20 

BY EUGENE SCRIEE 

22 Fleurette 20 

BY PRINCIPAL SHAIRP 

834 Life of Burns 10 

BY MARY W. SHELLEY 

5 Frankenstein 10 

BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 

549 Complete Poetical Works 30 

BY S. SHELLEY 

191 The Nautz Family 20 

BY J. H. SHORTHOUSE 

832 Sir Pcrcival 10 

BY EDITH SIMCOX 

513 Men, Women, and Lovers 20 

BY WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS 

6-10 The Partisan SO 

648 Mollichampe 30 

663 The Yemassee £0 

657 Katherine Walton 30 

662 Southward Ho 1 30 

671 The Scout 30 

674 The Wigwam and Cabin 30 

677 V asconselos 30 

880 Confession 30 

884 Woodcraft ... 30 

687 Richard Hurdis 30 

690 Guy Rivers 30 

693 Border Beagles 30 

697 The Forayers 30 

702 Chari emont 30 

703 Entaw 30 

705 Beanchampe 30 

BY J. P. SIMPSON 


BY HAWLEY SMART 

780 Bad to Beat 10 

1103 Saddle and Sabie 20 

BY SAMUEL SMILES 

425 Self-Help 25 

BY A. SMITH 

594 A Summer in Skye 20 

BY GOLDWIN SMITH 

110 False Hopes 15 

424 Life of Cowper 10 

BY J. GREGORY SMITH 

65 Selma 15 

BY S. M. SMUCKER 

248 Life of Webster, 2 Parts, each 15 

BY F. SPIELHAGEN 
449 Quisiana 20 

BY STARKWEATHER AND ' 
WILSON 

461 Socialism 10 

BY LESLIE STEPHEN 

396 Life of Pope 10 

401 Life of Johnson . . .10 

BY STEPNIAK 

173 Underground Russia 20 

BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON! 

767 Kidnapped 20 

768 Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. 

Hyde 10 

769 Prince Otto 10 

770 The Dynamiter 20 

793 New Arabian Nights 20 

819 Treasure Island 20 

921 The Merry Men 20 

1102 The Misadventures of John Nich- 
olson 10 

BY HESBA STRETTON 

729 In Prison and Out 20 

BY JULIAN STURGIS 

1062 Dick's Wandering 20 

BY EUGENE SUE 
772 Mysteries of Paris, 2 Parts, each .. .20 
776 The Wandering Jew, 2 Parts, each .20 

BY DEAN SWIFT 

68 G ulliver’ s Travels 20 

BY CHA3. ALGERNON SWIN- 
BURNE 

412 Poems 20 

BY J. A. SYMONDS 

361 Life of Shelley 10 

BY H. A. TAINE 

442 Taine’s English Literature 40 

BY NIKOLAI V. TCHERNUISH- 
COSKY 

1017 A Vital Question 30 

BY LORD TENNYSON 

446 Poems 4(f 

BY JUDGE D. P. THOMPSON 

21 The Green Mountain Boys 20 

BY THEODORE TILTON 

94 Tempest Tossed, Part I ,20 

20 , 94 TempeBt Tossed, Part II 2fl 


125 Haunted Hearts 10 

BY A. P. SINNETT 

824 Karma 


11 


LOVELL’S LIBRARY. 


BY W. M. THACKERAY 


J41 Henry Esmond 20 

143 Denis Duval 20 

148 Catherine 10 

156 Lovel, the Widower 10 

164 Barry Lyndon 20 

172 Vanity Fair 30 

193 History of Pendennis, 2 Parts, each.. 20 

211 The Newcomes, 2 Parts, each 20 

220 Book of Snobs 10 

229 Paris Sketches 20 

235 Adventures of Phili p, 2 Parts, each ..15 

238 The Virginians, 2 .’'arts, each 20 

262 Critical Reviews, etc 10 

266 Eastern Sketches 10 

262 Fatal Hoots, etc 10 

264 The Four Georges 10 

280 Fitzboodle Papers, etc 10 

283 Roundabout Papers 20 

285 A Legend of the Rhine, etc 10 

286 Cox’s Diary, etc 10 

292 Irish Sketches, etc 20 

296 Men’s Wives 10 

300 Novels by Eminent Hands 10 

303 Character Sketches, etc 10 

304 Christmas Books 20 

306 Ballads 15 

307 Yellowplush Papers 10 

309 Sketches and Travels in London 10 

313 English Humorists 15 

316 Great Hoggartv Diamond 10 

320 The Rose and the Ring 10 

BY COUNT LYOF TOLSTOI 

1110 My Husband and 1 10 

1113 Polikouchka 10 

1124 Two Generations 10 

BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE 

133 Mr. Scarborough’s Family, 2 Parts, 

each 15 

251 Autobiography of Anthony Trollope.20 

344 Life of Thackeray 10 

867 An Old Man’s Love 16 

BY F. A. TUPPER 

895 Moonshine 20 

BY J. VAN LENNEP 

468 The Count of Talavera 20 

BY JULES VERNE 

34 800 Leagues on the Amazon 10 

35 The Cryptogram 10 

154 Tour of the World in Eighty Days. .20 

166 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . . . . 20 

185 The Mysterious Island, 3 Parts, each .15 

BY QUEEN VICTORIA 

355 More Leaves from a Life in the High- 
lands 15 

BY VIRGIL 

•340 Poems 25 

BY L. B. WALFORD 

1055 Mr. Smith 20 

1056 The History of a Week 10 

1057 The Baby’s Grandmother 20 

1058 Troublesome Daughter 20 

1059 Cousins 20 

BY GEORGE WALKER 

13 The Three Spaniards 20 

BY SAMUEL WARREN 

985 Ten Thousand a Year, Part 1 20 

“ “ “ Part II 20 


“ PartHI ....20 


BY PROF. A. W. WARD 

413 Life of Chaucer IQ 

. BY F. WARDEN 

757 Doris’ Fortune 10 

980 At the World’s Mercy 10 

981 The House on the Marsh ' 20 

982 Deldee .20 

983 A Prince of Darkness 20 

1073 Scheherazade 20 

BY DESHLER WELCH 

427 Life of Grover Cleveland ,20 

BY E. WERNER 

614 At a High Price 20 

734 Vineta 20 

BY MRS. HENRY WOOD 

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THE TREASURE OF PEARLS 




CHAPTER I. 

THE PIECES AND THE BOARD. 

We stand on Mexican soil. We are on the seaward skirt of its westernmost 
State of Sonora, in the wild lands almost washed by the Californian Gulf, which 
will be the formidable last ditch of the unconquerable red men flying before 
the Star of the Empire. 

Before us, the immensity of land; behind us, that of the Pacific Ocean. 

O immeasurable stretches of verdure which form the ever unknown territory, 
the poetically entitled Far West, grand and attractive, sweet and terrible, the 
natural trellis of so rich, beautiful, mighty, and unkempt flora, that India has 
none of more vigour of production! 

To an aeronaut’s glance, these green and yellow plains would offer only a 
vast carpet embroidered with dazzling flowers and foliage, almost as gay and 
multicoloured, irregularly blocked out like the pieces of glass in ancient church 
windows with the lead, by rivers torrentuous in the wet season, rugged hollows 
of glistening quick-sands and neck-deep mud in summer, all of which blend 
with an unexampledly brilliant azure on the clear horizon. 

It is only gradually, after the view has become inured to the fascinating 
landscape, that it can make out the details : hills not to be scorned for altitude, 
steep banks of rivers, and a thousand other unforeseen impediments for the 
wretch fleeing from hostile animals or fellow-beings, which agreeably spoil the 
somewhat saddening sameness, and are hidden completely from the general 
glance by the rank grass, rich canes, and gigantic flower-stalks. 

Oh, for the time — the reader would find the patience — to enumerate the 
charming products of this primitive nature, which shoots up and athwart, 
hangs, swings, juts out, crosses, interlaces, binds, twines, catches, encircles, and 
strays at random to the end of the naturalist’s investigation, describing majestic 
paraboles, forming grandiose arcades, and finally completes the most splendid, 
aye, and sublime spectacle that is given to any man on the footstool to admire 
for superabundant contrasts, and enthralling harmonies. 


6 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


The man in the balloon whom we imagine to be hovering over this 
mighty picture, even higher up than the eagle of the Sierra Madre itself, who 
sails in long circles above the bald-headed vulture about to descend on a prey, 
which the king of the air disdains — this lofty viewer, we say, would spy, on 
the afternoon when we guide the reader to these wilds apparently unpeopled, 
more than one human creature wriggling like worms in the labyrinth. 

At one point some twenty men, white and yet swarthy, unlike in dress but 
similarly armed to the teeth, were separately “ worming ” their tortuous way, 
we repeat, through th e chapparal proper, or plantations of the low-branching live 
oak, as well as the gigantic ferns, mezquito, oactus, nopal, and fruit-laden 
shrubs, the oblong-leaved mahogany, the bread tree, the fan-leaved abanijo, 
the pirijao languidly swinging its enormous golden fruit in clusters, the royal palm, 
devoid of foliage along the stem, but softly nodding its high, majestically- 
plumed head; the guava, the banana, the intoxicating chirimoya, the cork- 
oak, the Peruvian tree, the war-palm letting its resinous gum slowly ooze forth 
to capture the silly moths, and even young snakes and lizards which squirmed 
on the hardening gum like a platter of Palissy ware abruptly galvanised into 
life. 

These adventurers insinuated themselves through this tangle unseen and, 
perhaps, unsuspected by one another, all tending to the same point, probably 
the same rendezvous. A marked devil-may-care spirit, which tempered the 
caution of men brought up in the desert, betokened that they were master of 
the woods hereabouts, or, at least, only recognised the Indian rovers as their 
contesting fellow-tenants. 

Elsewhere, a blundering stranger, of a fairness which startled the prong- 
horn antelopes as much as a superstitious man would be at seeing a sheeted 
form at midnight, tramped desperately as one who felt lost, but nervously feared 
to delay whilst there was daylight, over the immense spreads of dahlias, 
flaunting flowers each full of as much honey as Hercules would care to drain at 
a draught, whiter than Chimborazo’s snow, or ruddier than the tiger-lily’s 
blood-splashes ; through thick creepers which withered with the pressing 
circulation of boiling sap like vegetable serpents around the trees, from which 
gorged reptiles, not unlike these growing cords themselves, dangled, and now 
and then half curled up, startling with his inexpert foot (in a boot cut and 
torn by the bramble and splinters of the ironwood and lignum vitae shattered 
in the tornado— a “ twister,” indeed) — animals of all sizes and species, which 
leaped, flew, floundered, and crept aloof in the chaos not unpierceable to 
them : forms on two, four, countless feet, with long, broad, ample, or tiny 
wings, singing, calling, yelling, howling up and down a scale of incredible 
extent, now softly seducing the astray to follow, now taunting him and scream- 
ing for him to forbear. If he were not maddened, he must have had a heart 
of steel. 

Elsewhere still, a man was riding on a horse whose harness and trappings 
smelt so strongly of the stable, that is, of human slavery, that it alarmed the 
stupid, mournful-eyed bisons, the alligator as he basked in the caking mire, the 
hideous iguana slothfully ascending a wind-cast trunk, that maneless lion’ the * 
cougar, the panthers and jaguars too lazy or too glutted with the niaht’s raid 
to follow the prey, the honey bear warily sniffing the flower which harboured a 
bee, the sullen grizzly who looked out of a hilly den amazed at so impudent an 
invader. Upon this horse, whose Spanish descent and state of born thraldom 
was resented by the angry neigh of his never-lassoed brethren, proudly 
careering in unnumbered manadas upon endless courses, this man was 
resolutely progressing, ruthlessly severing vines and floral clumps with a 


The Pieces and the Bnard, 


7 


splendid old broadsword, cool as only a Mexican can remain in a felt sombrero 
and a voluminous blanket cloak ; charging and crushing, unless they quickened 
their retreat, the venomous cotejo, the green lizard, the basilisk and tiny, yet 
awful, coral snakes, and never swerving, though the tongue could almost attain 
what was unmuffled of his face, the monstrous anaconda and its long, spotted 
kinsfolk. This mounted Mexican took a line, not so straight as the footmen 
were pursuing, which would bring him to the spot whither they were 
converging. 

Imagining that the one of the wayfarers who evinced an ignorance of prairie 
life which made his existence each moment a greater miracle, and that the 
horseman who, on the contrary, rode on as sturdily as a post-boy in a well- 
worn road, formed two sides of a triangle of which the evident destination of 
the rider and the other Mexicans was the final end, in about the centre of this 
fancied space, other human objects of interest were visible to our aerial 
observer. 

Toilsomely marching, one or the other of two men supporting alternately 
the young girl who, singularly enough, was their companion in this wilderness, 
the new trio formed a group which fluttered the almost never-so-startled 
feathered inhabitants of that grove; curassoes, tanagers, noisy loros, humming 
birds as small as flies, hunting flies as large as themselves, toucans that 
seemed overburdened with their ultra-liberal beaks, wood pigeons, fiery 
flamiRgoes, in . cl riking contrast with the black swans that clattered in the 
cane brake. 

Behind them, m calm, contented chase, easy and active as the pretty gray 
squirrels, which alone took the alarm and sprang away when he noiselessly 
appeared, a shining copper-skinned Indian, with robust limbs and graceful gait, 
an eye to charm and to command, moved like a king who scorned to set his guards 
to punish the intruder, on his domains, but stalked savagely onward to chastise 
them himself. The plentiful scalp-locks that fringed his leggings showed that 
he had left many a skeleton of the paleface to bleach in the torrid sun, and that 
the sex, the youth and the beauty of the gentle companion of the two whites 
on whose track he so placidly proceeded, would not spare her a single pang, 
far less obtain her immunity. On his Apollo-like bosom was tattooed, in sepia 
and vermilion, a rattlesnake, the emblem not merely of a tribe, but the sect of 
a tribe, the ring within the circle ; he belonged to the select band of the 
Southern Apaches, the Poison- Hatchets, initiated in the compounding of 
deadly salves and potent potions, to cure the victim of which the united 
faculties of Europe would be baffled. No doubt those arrows, of which the 
feathers bristled in a full quiver, and his other weapons, were anointed with 
that venom which makes such Indians shunned by all the prairie rovers. 

Such was the panorama, sublime, enthralling and fearsome, and the puppets 
which are presented to our imaginary gazer. 

Leaving him to dissolve into the air whence we evolved him, we descend to 
terra firma near the last party to which we directed attention. 

The sun was at its zenith, which fact rendered the animation of so many 
persons the more remarkable, since few are a-foot in the heat of the day in 
those regions. 

Suddenly, with a slight hiss as of a living snake, an arrow sped unerringly 
through a "tuft of liquid embers, and laid low, after one brief spasm of death, 
a huge dog which seemed a mongrel of Newfoundlander and a wild wolf. 

Shortly afterwards the branches which masked the poor animal’s stiffening 
body (on which the greedy flies began already to settle, and towards which the 
tumble-bugs were scrambling in their amazing instinct), were parted by a 


8 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


trembling hand, and a white man of Spanish-American extraction, showed his 
face streaming with perspiration and impressed with terror and despair, to 
which, at the discovery, was immediately added a profound sorrow. 

“ Snake-bit 1 that is what detained Fracasador (the Breaker into Bits). Come, 
arouse thee, good dog! ” he said in Spanish, but instantly perceiving the tip of 
the arrow shaft buried almost wholly in the broad chest, he uttered a sigh of 
deep consternation, and added — 

“ Again the dart of death ! we are still pursued by that remorseless fiend.” 

Fracasador was certainly dead. 

“ After our horses, the dog ! after the dog, ourselves ! Brave Benito ! poor 
Dolores, my poor child ! ” 

He started, as the bushes rustled, but it was not an enemy who appeared. 
It was the young woman whom he had named, and a youth in his two-and- 
twentieth year at the farthest. 

Benito was tall, well and stoutly built; his form even stylish, his features fine 
and regular; his complexion seemed rather pale for a native, from his silky 
hair, which came down disorderly on his square shoulders, being of a jet black. 
Intelligence and unconquerable daring shone in his large black eyes. On his 
visage sat a seldom-seen blending of courage, fidelity and frankness. In short, 
one of those men who win at first sight, and can be trusted to the last. 

Though his costume, reduced by the dilapidation of the thorns, consisted of 
linen trousers caught in at the waist by a red China crape faya or sash, and a. 
coarse “ hickory ” shirt, he resembled a disguised prince, so much ease and 
distinction abounded in his bearing. But, for that matter, throughout Spanish- 
America, it is impossible to distinguish a noble from a common man, for they 
all express themselves with the same elegance, employ language quite as nicely 
chosen, and have equally courteous manners. 

The girl whom he supported, almost carried in fact, was sleeping without 
being fully unconscious, as happens to soldiers on a forced march. Dolores 
was not over sixteen. Her beauty was exceptional, and her modesty made her 
low melodious voice falter when she spoke. She was graceful and dainty as 
an Andalusian. The profile so strongly resembled that of the man who was 
leaning over the slain dog that it did not require the remembrance that he had 
spoken of her as his child, for one to believe that he had father and daughter 
under his ken. 

“ Don’t wake her 1 ” said the elder man, with a quick wave of the hand to 
quell the other’s surprise. “ Let her not see the poor faithful hound, Benito. 
And keep yourself, as I do, before her as a shield. The cowardly foe to whom 
we owe the loss of our horses, our arms, and now our loyal comrade is lurking 
in the thicket, may even — Oh, Holy Mother, that should protect us from the 
heathen !— be this instant taking aim at our poor, dear Dolores, with another 
missile from his accursed quiver.” 

“ The villain ! ” cried Benito, darting a furious glance around. “ Luckily, she 
sleeps, Don Jose.” 

Indeed the elder Mexican could take the girl without awakening her out of the 
other’s arms, and, after a long kiss on her pure forehead, bear her away from the 
dog’s proximity into a covert where he laid her upon the grass with precaution. 

“ Thank heaven for this sleep,” said he, “ it will make her temporarily 
oblivious of her hunger.” 

Benito had taken the other’s zarape which he spread over the girl. That 
blanket was their only appendage ; beside the scanty covering which the three 
wore, weapons, water-bottle and food-container, they had none. A critical 
position this for the small party, weaponless and foodiess in the waste l A 


Envy no Man his Grave. 


9 


disarmed man is reckoned as dead in such a wild ! Struggling is impossible 
against the incalculable foes that either crush a solitary adventurer by their 
mass, or deputise, so to say. some such executioner as he whom we saw to have 
slain the dog, and we hear to have rid the three Mexicans of their horses and 
equipments. The story of how this deprivation came about is short and 
lamentable. 


CHAPTER II. 

ENVY NO MAN HIS GRAVE. 

Don Benito Vasquez de Bustamente was the son of that General Bustamente, 
twice president of the Mexican Republic. When his father, cast down from 
power, was forced to flee with his family to take final refuge at Guayaquil, the 
boy was only five or six years old. Suffering with fever, which made the 
voyage dangerous for him, the child was left at Guaymas in charge of a faithful 
adherent, who found no better way of saving the son of the proscript from 
persecution than to take him as one of his own little family up the San Jos6 
Valley, where he had a ranche. The boy remained there and grew up to the 
age when we encountered him. 

His rough but trusty guardian let the youth run wild, teaching him to ride 
and shoot as the only needful accomplishments. Benito, falling into the 
company of the remnant of purer-blooded Indians, supposed to be the last of 
the original possessors of that region, relished their vagabond life exceedingly. 
Not only did he spend weeks at a time in hunts with them, with an occasional 
running fight with the Yagui tribe, and even the Apaches raiding Sonora; but, 
at the season for pearl-diving, accompanied them in their boats, not only in the 
Gulf, but down the mainland and up the sea-coast of the Peninsula. Le Paz 
he knew well, and the Isles of Pearls were familiar in every cranny. 

Now, when the news of his father’s death in exile came to Benito, he was a 
hunter and horseman doubled by seaman and pearl-fisher, such as that quarter 
of the world even seldom sees. 

So little on land, both enemies and followers of the co-president lost all 
trace of the son. 

Moreover, in the land of revolution in permanency, the offspring of a once 
ruler are personally to blame if they call dangerous attention on themselves. 

On shore, however, Don Benito had noticed the daughter of a neighbour, one 
Don Jose Miranda, formerly in the navy. After a couple of years’ wedded life, 
the latter was left a widower with an only daughter, who had become this 
charming Dolores, now slumbering under her father’s zarape. Her education 
was confided to a poor sister of the captain, who was about the only enemy 
young Bustamente had in his courtship. Captain Miranda was very fond 
of the youth, and it was agreed ere long that there should be a wedding at the 
Noria de las Pasioneras (Well -house of the Passion-flowers) as soon as Benito 
reached the age of five-and-twenty. 


io 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


But Donna Maria Josefa had contrary marital projects. Her brother had 
so many times talked of bestowing the bulk of his considerable fortune on his 
beloved child, that the lady concluded, rightly or wrongly, that she would be 
penniless when the niece married. Habituated, since a great while back, to a 
very easy, not to say pampered existence at her kinsman’s expense, she beheld 
with terror the time coming when her host would settle all his property on the 
girl, and constitute the strange young man, who was so reserved about his origin, 
the steward for his young wife. However, Donna Maria Josefa was too 
sly and adroit to openly oppose the paternal determination, and allow him to 
perceive the hate she bore Benito and would ue only too delighted to 
manifest. 

Whenever she threw out hints of a better match for her niece than this 
mysterious youth, they had fallen in deaf ears, and she fretted in silence that 
boded no good prospects. 

Nevertheless, some two years had known the young hearts formally engaged 
without the serpent lifting her head to emit a truly alarming hiss. At that time 
Donna Maria Josefa introduced at her brother’s a hook-nosed gentleman, 
arrayed sumptuously, who rejoiced in a long name which paraded pretensions 
to an illustrious lineage. This Don Anmbal Cristoval de Luna y Almagro de 
Cortez so displeased Benito and Dolores, whilst not ingratiating himself deeply 
with Don Jose, that his presence would not have been tolerated, only for the 
young couple hopefully supposing that the tall and bony scion of the first con- 
queror of Mexico was a flame of Dolores’ duenna, and as such would wed the 
dragon and take her away from the hacienda to the beautiful and boundless 
domains in Spain, upon which he expatiated in a shrill voice of enthusiasm. 

Don Annibal had excellent credentials from a banker’s at Guavmas, but, 
somehow, the gentlemen farmers received him with cold courtesy. Besides, it 
having been remarked that those who offended him met with injury, personal, 
like the being waylaid, or in their property, stock being run off or outhouses 
fired, there sprang up a peculiar way of treating the stranger for which the 
Spanish morgue , that counterpart of English phlegm, is very well suited. 

All at once, Benito received word that a messenger from his mother had 
arrived at Guaymas, bearing the very good news that she expected to obtain a 
revocation of the sentence of banishment against the brood of Bustamente, and 
then he could publicly avow his name. 

He had already imparted his secret to Captain Miranda. 

The messenger had grievously suffered with sea-sickness, and was unable to 
come up the valley. Miranda counselled Benito to go to him therefore, and 
besides, as the formalities attending the settlement of his estate upon his 
daughter, under the marriage contract, required such legal owls as nestled alone 
in the port, he volunteered to accompany the young man. Over and above all 
this pleasing arrangement, as Dolores had never seen the city, of which the five 
thousand inhabitants think no little — for after all it is the finest harbour in the 
Gulf of California — he proposed she should be of the party. 

Another reason, which he did not confide in any one, acted as a spur. A 
neighbour had told Don Josd that, from a communication of his major-domo, an 
expert in border warfare, he believed that the illustrious Don Annibal de Luna 
was not wholly above complicity with a troop of robbers who lately infested 
Sonora, and caused as much dread and more damage, forasmuch as they were 
intelligently directed to the best stores of plunder as the Indians themselves. 
This neighbour, though he loved Donna Josefa no more cordially than anybody 
else, still deemed it dutiful to prevent Captain Miranda allowing a “ gentleman 
of the highway ” to marry into his family. 


Envy no Man his Grave . 


ii 


Don Jos£ felt the caution more painfully, as his sister had plainly let him 
know that the famous Don Annibal was not so much her worshipper as her 
niece’s. He might have thanked the salteador to rid his house of the old 
maid, but to allow one to court his daughter was another matter. At the same 
time, as of such dubious characters are made the “colonels” who buckler up a 
Mexican revolutionary pretender, Don Josd was scarcely less coldly civil to 
the hidalgo, though he hastened on the preparations to withdraw his daughter 
from the swoop of the bird of rapine. 

Donna Maria Josefa drew a long face at the prospect of being left alone at 
the hacienda, but she was too great a dependant on her brother, and too 
hypocritical to trammel the undertaking. 

The party set forth, then, under good and sufficient escort. But the very foul 
fiend himself appeared to have taken all Donna Maria Josefa’s evil wishes in 
hand to carry them out, to say nothing of the baulked Don Annibal’s. 

Half the escort left without returning, at a mere alarm of the Indios bravos 
(“hostiles”) being at La Palma, and massacring and firing farmhouses 
wholesale. The rest were lost in the bush, were abandoned dead or dying ; the 
mules and houses were “ stampeded ” by unseen foes ; and finally a fatal bowman 
slew the two horses which had borne Don Jose and his daughter in their futile 
endeavour to regain the lost track ; and, to come to the present time, their dog, 
of whom the instinct had preserved them more than once from death by thirst, 
had been despatched by the same relentless demon 

Still, there was the contradictory consolation which the persistent enemy 
afforded by these evidences of his bloodthirsty hunt. By a singular anomaly 
of the human organisation, as long as man knows his fellows are at hand, even 
though they be enemies, he does not feel utterly stripped of hope. In the 
depth of his heart, the vaguest of hope sustains and encourages him, though 
he may not reason about it. But as soon as all human vestiges disappear, the 
imperceptible human waif on the sea, alone with nature, trembles in full 
revelation of his paltriness. The colossal surroundings daunt him, and he 
acknowledges it is folly to struggle with the waves that multitudinously mount 
up to swamp him from all sides. 

Meanwhile, no further occasion to be fearful had been shown, the sun went 
down, and shot up one short gleam ere the swift darkness shrouded the sky. 
The howling of wild beasts rushing out to enjoy their time of sport could be 
traced from the lair to the “ licks ” and springs. 

But our disarmed gente perdida, the lost ones, durst not light a fire ; had they 
the means to scare the wolf away, it might have afforded a mark for the un- 
known archer. Don Josd wept as he saw his daughter, who pretended to sleep, 
to give him and her lover less uneasiness. But sleep does not come under 
these circumstances to them who court it. 

Indeed, only those who have undergone the horror of a night in the untamed 
forest can imagine its poignancy. Lugubrious phantoms people the glades, 
the wild beasts entone a devilish concert, the limbs of trees seem to be animated 
into semblances of the really awakened serpents, whose scales can be heard 
gliding with a slime-softened hush over the bending boughs. None but the 
experienced can reckon how many ages are compressed in one second of this 
gruesome “ fix,” a nightmare of the wakeful, during which the racked mind 
finds a distorted relish in picturing the most monstrous lucubrations, particu- 
larly when the faint yet tantalised appetite sets the brain palpitating with 
delirium. 

After enduring this strain for some hours of the gloom, hope or mere instinct 
Of Self-preservation caused Benito to suggest, as one acquainted with hunters 


12 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


expedients, that the shelter existed by the increasing danger of their position 
on the ground, was upon the summit of a huge broken cottonwood tree. He 
assisted Don Jose to mount to the top, which he found tolerably solid, spite of 
wet and solar rot, passed him up poor Dolores, and stood on guard at the base. 
He meant to have kept awake, or, rather, had not the least idea that he should 
go off to sleep, but famine had passed its acute stage, and fatigue collaborated 
with it to lull him. The last look he gave upwards showed him vaguely, like a 
St. Simon Stylites, the elder Mexican on the broad summit of the stump, his 
daughter reclining on the bed of pith at his feet. Don Jos£ was then praying, 
his face turned to the east, where no doubt he trusted to behold a less unhappy 
sun than bad last scorched them. 

Suddenly Don Benito started : something like a hot snake had run down his 
cheek and buried itself in his bosom. At almost the same instant, whilst he 
was awakening fully, a smart sting in the left shoulder, preceded by a hissing, 
short and angry, made the young man utter an exclamation rather in rage than 
pain. 

The sun had risen ; at least, he could see about him and be warmed and 
vivified a little, through a fresh day commenced of intolerable torments. 

As he looked up, the repetition of the sensation of the reptile gliding adown 
his face, but less warm and more slow this time, caused him to apply hi^ hand 
to the line traversed. He withdrew it speedily, and in disgust — his fingers were 
smeared with blood ! 

“ Oh, Don Jose !” he ejaculated. “ Dolores, dear !” 

Stupefied, speechless, like a statue, the girl upon the natural pedestal was 
supporting the lifeless body of the old Mexican. An arrow was broken off in 
his temple, and his beard, roughly sprouted out and white with this week of 
hardship, was flooded with the blackening blood of which Benito in his post 
below had received the drip. 

The young man stared fiercely around, and instantly perceiving something on 
the move in the thicket, sprang up the tree. 

At the same time aimed at him to redeem the marksman for his first failure, 
which had lodged the shaft in the young Mexican’s shoulder instead of his head 
or his heart ; a second projectile of the same description whizzed into the gap 
between his legs, opened by his leap, and smote a knot so violently as to shiver 
into a dozen splinters. 

Unable for want of strength to keep his hold, the youthful Mexican slipped 
down to the ground. Then, facing about in frenzy of indignation, as being so 
badgered by the unknown, he called out savagely : 

“ Coward ! confront the last of your victims, if you have a drop of manlv 
blood 1” ' e y 

Because he had concluded his last shot serious, or from disdain for his anta- 
gonist, or sheer recklessness — for it is not likely that a savage so far forgot his 
training as to let such a white man’s taunt sting him into the imprudence — the 
Indian who had dogged the unfortunate trio stalked out of the underwood, and 
only ceased his advance when a lance length from the desperate man who had 
invoked him. 

“ Presente ! ” he said in Spanish, with a hoarse chuckle, as in one glance he 
saw the insensible young female form beside the dead Mexican, and Don 
Benito’s weak condition. 

Indeed, the latter, instead of carrying out his implied threat, tottered back 
and leaned against the cottonwood, just under one arrow, and with the other 
shattered shaft bristling at his shoulder. 

The red man chose to interpret this movement as a flattery for his warlike 


Envy no Man his Grave . 


*3 


appearance, for he smiled contentedly, and, drawing his long knife, cried 
holding up three fingers of his left hand, 

“ La Garra d>> Rapina — the Claw of Rapine — will now take his harvest for 
thrice five days’ toil.” 

Benito sought to summon his failing powers, but a mist seemed to spring up 
and becloud his gaze, through which he less and less clearly saw the Indian’s 
slow and cruel approach. Nevertheless, he was about to make a snatch at 
hazard for the steel that rose over his bosom, when a flash of fire from a gun 
so near that he almost saw the hither extremity blind the redskin, preceded a 
shot that crashed through the latter’s skull. Benito, unable to check his own 
leap, received the dead yet convulsed body in his arms, and the shock hurled 
him to the ground. Neither rose ! One was dead ; the other within an ace 
of the same impassable portals. It seemed to him, as he lost consciousness, 
that there was a struggle in the brush. 

When Benito reopened his eyes he believed all had been a dream, but, on 
gazing anxiously about him, he saw the dead Indian by his side. Above him, 
too, when he rose on his knees by an efl'ort, the two silent witnesses of his 
miraculous deliverance were still recumbent. 

No trace of another living soul ; nevertheless, the Indian’s weapons had all 
disappeared. 

Suddenly, as he lifted himself to his feet, aching all over as if he had been 
bastinadoed on every accessible place, he heard Dolores moan. She was 
animated by the acute racking of hunger. 

He gasped, “ Food ! food for her ! ” and reeled to the greenest spot, where 
he began to tear up the earth with his nails. At length he dislodged a 
little stem of yucca, the somewhat tasty root which yields a species of 
maniac. 

When he returned to the tree, Dolores, horrified at seeing her father’s blood, 
had fallen off the tree top, rather than climbed down, and was too insensible to 
hear his appeals. He dragged the Indian’s body partly aside, for to do so 
wholly was too weighty a task, and heaped leaves over the other portion. He 
placed the root in Dolores’ passive hands, and was about to repeat his hoarse 
babble of hope, which he did not feel at heart, when abruptly the arrow wound 
in his shoulder gave a sharp, deep, scorching sensation, which filled him 
from head to sole with fever and awe. 

“ Oh, heavens !” he groaned. “The arrow was poisoned! I shall die in 
madness ! I shall, perhaps, tear her, my dear Dolores, in my blind, ungovern- 
able rage 1 ’’ 

So feels the man whom hydrophobia has seized upon, as the latest prompt- 
ings of reason bid him hie aloof from his endangered fellows. 

Benito laid his glances about him wildly ; his recently dull eyes blazed till 
his very features, already earthy, lit up, and he howled: 

“ Welcome, death ! but anywhere save here ! ” 

He trampled on the Indian corpse in his flight, and plunged into the thorns 
as if bent on rending himself to shreds. He must have rushed madly on for 
half-an-hour, the venom firing his thinned blood till his veins ran flames, but 
as the wound on his left side affected that portion of the frame dispropor- 
tionately, he described a circle, and in the end had almost returned to the spot 
where Dolores still rested in a swoon. 

At last, stumbling, groping, he fell, only to crawl a little way, then, a slight 
mound opposing his hands and knees, he rolled upon it. His head appeared 
to have been cleared by the Mazeppa-like course, and he was, at least, 
conscious of the raised grass reminding him of a funeral mound. 


14 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


“ A grave ! ” he breathed, dashing the sweat out of his eyes, “ yes, a grave j 
here will the last of the Bustamentes die ! ” 

He stretched out at full length, he folded his arms, one of them palsied 
already, and was beginning to pray, when his tone changed to joy, or at least, 
profound hopefulness. He fell over on his side, then rose to his knees, ran his 
hand over the mound eagerly, and cried : 

“ God of mercy, deceive me not 1 the grave I coveted, is it not a cache ? 
Thank God!” 


CHAPTER IH, 

THE PIRATE’S BEQUEST. 

The wanderer whose careless progress through the brake sufficiently clearly 
revealed that he was a stranger of a bold heart and contempt for customs 
different from his own, was, in fact, one of those Englishmen who seem born 
to illustrate, in the nature of exceptions, the formal character of his race. 

Left an orphan in the fetters of a trustee who forgot he had ever been young 
and showed no sympathy with his charge, George Frederick Gladsden had 
broken his bondage and run away from school at the age of twelve Reaching 
a Scotch port, after a long tramp, he shipped as boy on a herring-fisher, and 
so made his novitiate With Neptune. After that initiation, very severe he 
chose to become a sailor of that irregular kind which is known as the pierhead 
jumping. That is to say, instead of duly entering on a vessel and book at 
the office in broad daylight, “ George ” would lounge on the wharf till the 
very moment of her casting off. Then, of course, the captain is happy to take 
anybody in the least nautical or even able-bodied, who offers himself in 
heu of one of the regularly engaged mariners detained by accident, debt, or 
drink. By this means Gladsden’s trustee and kinsfolk could never prevent him 
going wheresoever he willed, and it pleased this briny Arab to keen hU 
whereabouts a mystery, though, to amuse himself and annoy his guardian he 
would send him a letter from some dreadfully out-of-the-way port just to show 

] h aw dld eX1St ’ 3nd t0 PreV6nt the GState being l0cked up ° r Verted un der the 

Meanwhile the youngroaming Englishman became so thorough a proficient in 
the honourable calling, and had so much courage and intelligence that even in 
the merchant service, where the prizes are few and hotly fought for, he must 
have obtained a supportable, if not a brilliant position J S must 

Unfortunately for himself he had an execrably fitful head, and was the 
declared foe of Draconian discipline. If there had been pirates on the seas he 

might even have joined them, only then to have enjoyed a delightful existent 
of Jack his own master.” J J ° u existence 

Quarrelling with his latest skipper, a seal-hunter, on the Lower r.vr • 
coast, that Spaniard, rather alarmed at the turbulent mate was relieved' u*” 
he accepted the offer of a Hermosillo planter to become his manager, and tot 


The Pirate's Bequest . 


15 


only broke the engagement between them, but presented Gladsden with some 
dollars and his gun on their parting. The Englishman promised well up in 
the country, but the fowl in the swamp allured him into hunting trips with 
some Indians, and he turned such a vagabond that the indolent Sonoran came 
to the conclusion that, as the skipper of the seal-fur cruiser had warned him, 
he had contracted with a maniac. 

One day, Gladsden and the Indians, turning their backs on the San Miguel 
swamps, wandered off, the Englishman cared not whither. His dusky comrades 
were soon displeased by his careless march, and a little later, disgusted by his 
even resenting their counsels for him to take precautions, since, not only were 
there other Indians “out,” but one of the most notorious salteadores who had 
ever troubled any part of unquiet Mexico was overawing the whole of the tract 
between the San Miguel and the San Josd. To which the mad Englishman 
replied, with a calmness which startled the red men, though masters of 
self-repression, that such daring traits aroused in him a lively curiosity, and 
the strongest desire to face this very famous Matasiete, “ the Slayer of Seven,” 
the terror of Sonora. 

Seeing this obstinacy, our sly Yaguis solved the perplexity by abandoning 
their burr one morning whilst he was still sleeping, and leaving him only his 
gun and what powder and ball he carried. His horse and other property they 
removed with them lest, in his folly, he should only turn the valuables over to 
the redskins not of their tribe, or the Mexican depredators. 

For all of his maritime knowledge which helps the student of sky and 
weather on land, Gladsden was in a quandary when thus thrown on his own 
devices. As, however, he never wrangled with himself, he took up his solitary 
march without any self-communing, and followed the impulse of the moment. 

Fortunately, game never failed him, and though the only flavouring was 
gunpowder, the fare had not palled upon him up to his coming within our 
circle of vision. 

He was “ loping ” along, very like a sated wolf, listless, when he unexpectedly, 
and by the purest chance, spied the gleaming body of an Indian, stealing before 
him amongst the foliage, always in the thickest parts. 

His resolve awakening to give the Yaguis a lecture, with cuts of the ramrod, 
upon the “Fault of Abandoning a Hunting Companion in the Desert,” he 
quickened his pace, but almost immediately perceived that the savage was 
another guess sort of a bird, one more likely, armed for war as he was, and 
determined of aspect as ever was a brave, to deal out punishment than receive 
it unrequitingly. 

In fact, the fierce, hungry, set face of the pursuer of the Mexican protectors 
of Donna Dolores would have sufficed to impress even a more nonchalant 
person than our Englishman. 

“ Mischief in the wind,” thought he. 

And as a white man on seeing a man of another hue on the trail, at once 
believes that the object of the chase is one of his own colour, he turned to, and, 
having no other intentions to overrule, began to dog the slayer of Don Jos£ de 
Miranda as successfully and closely as he was following the Mexicans. It was 
not to be expected that the foreigner did not make blunders in this man-hunt, 
so novel to him, but his very incaution or missteps actually helped him, for the 
savage, unable to believe that a man would dream of breaking a twig noisily in 
a wild perhaps not devoid of certain enemies, attributed the two or three 
alarming sounds in his rear to animals, from whom he had nothing to dread. 

In brief, Gladsden arrived at the halting-place of the Mexicans in time to see 
poor Benito make his stand, and hear the savage, as he disclosed himself, utter 


1 6 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


the arrogant “Presente!" as he bared his knife to complete his triple 
tragedy. 

The Englishman saw there was a flutter of a woman’s dress that a 
to his gallantry, the blood splashes from Don Jos<§ on the stump, and the valiant 
but weak port of Don Benito. He feared that to jump towards the Apache 
would not stay that ugly knife, so he lifted the gun which was Captain Soanez’s 
parting gift, and sent a bullet through the warrior’s head. 

As quickly upon the echoes of the report, as if it had been a signal, and, for 
that matter, the two men who bounded upon the marksman had been afraid to 
“ tackle ” him whilst his firearm was “ full ” — a standing item in prairie-fight- 
ing — the Englishman was set upon by a man on either side. Spite of his 
strength he was hurled off his feet, and secured with a lariat and gagged with 
moss, all with a celerity which proved that he had been overcome by bandits of 
no despicable experience. When he was perfectly incapacitated from more 
than winking, as one of the fellows remarked in a whisper, that facetious rogue 
warily proceeded to inspect the result of the shot. 

It had so laudably obeyed its impulsion, that the Mexican, after one look at 
the Indian, felicitated himself on not having been so precipitate as to draw that 
bullet on himself. 

The spot was quiet, Benito, clotted red smearing his shoulder, seemed as 
lifeless as the red man. The young girl and her father, whose blood reddened 
her ragged dress, were equally among the lifeless, to all cursory examination. 

The Mexican picked up the weapons of the Indian, said : “ A lone Chiricagui 
Apache 1 ” as he spurned the body out of wantonness, and returned to his 
comrades. 

“The captain will be gratified, Farruco,” said he, pushing the Indian's 
weapons within his sash ; “ there they all lie, in a heap, the Don, the daughter 
and their young companion, with the Chiricagui who was hired to dog them to 
the death, slain by our chalky-faced long-shot here.’’ 

“ If we cut his throat, Pepillo, then we shall make a clearance of the whole 
cluster,” returned Farruco, complacently, even laying his hand on the buck- 
horn haft of a knife. 

“A word to that! you are always for taking the crowning pleasure of a 
running-down ! Am I to have no thanks even for having saved you from running 
your hasty head against this heretic’s gun ? A thousand demons shall not rob 
me of my prey ! You have already grabbed his gun ! I will have the cutting of 
his throat.” 

The silenced object of this very pretty growing dispute looked up calmly, 
but sufficiently interested, be sure, out of his gray eyes. 

“ One moment, let us throw dice for ‘ the pleasure ! ’ ” 

“Nonsense! we all know the topheaviness of your dice.” 

The other duly laughed at this allusion to a vantage which is not always 
accepted as a compliment. 

“ Let us draw leaves — long or short ! ” 

“ I agree, Pepillo ; there’s a bayonet-palm at your elbow.” 

The Mexican turned to gather a couple of leaves of different length, when the 
captive saw the face of his comrade shine with a hellish joy. Noiseless he drew 
out the Indian’s tomahawk from his belt and in another second he would have 
buried it in the back of the unsuspecting bandit. The monstrous fondness for 
cruelty which impelled this wanton murder was so repugnant to the Englishman 
that he, bound too tightly for any other movement, rolled himself, by working 
his elbow and knee, right against the feet thrown forward of the traitor. The 
shock was not enough to make the blow fully miscarry, but the axe oniy cleft 


The Pirate's Bequest . 


*7 


the wretch’s collar-bone, glancing the flesh to one side along it on partial 
withdrawal with an agony imparted which made the recipient yell. He flung 
himself round, and drawing his knife at the same inappreciable second of time, 
broke through the other’s guard with the hatchet, and buried the blade in his 
heart so forcibly that the hilt drove his breath out of his lungs with a loud 
sound. Farruco pitched over upon the Englishman, and died before he had 
ceased his groan of despair. 

The wounded outlaw sat himself down, without any but self-concern, to 
attend to his wound, to which he applied a dressing of chewed leaves. Then 
studying the scene, he suddenly became conscious that the movement of the 
log-like form of the prisoner between his assassin’s legs had saved his life, if, 
always granted, it were a curable wound. 

Without a word, like a man who fears to hesitate in his formation of a good 
but novel whim, lest he revokes its realisation to remain consistent with his 
daily and worse nature, Pepillo, without wiping the fatal knife, severed the 
leather thongs around Gladsden. 

“One good turn,” said he, sententiously, as becomes a Spaniard, but pru- 
dently setting his foot on the gun of which the captive was despoiled. 

“ Yes, he meant to split your skull, that’s all,” remarked the latter, sitting up 
and chafing his limbs to restore the circulation. “ He was a pirate ; and you 
have only anticipated his suspension at a yardarm.” 

Pepillo paid no attention to him. He had picked up the Indian’s hatchet, 
and seemed to be regarding with an antiquarian zeal the design traced in an 

I idle moment or two, nowand then, with the hunting knife. Then, contracting 
his brow more in terror than in pain, and turning pale in the same increasing 
dread rather than from loss of blood, he ejaculated : 

“ The villain ! the assassin ! It is a copper-bronze hatchet ! I am poisoned ! 
I shall die of lockjaw ! ” Then, noting the incredulous expression of the 
bystander, who had, however, been sufficiently sympathetic as to rise to his 
throbbing feet and lean towards the sufferer, “I tell you, Pagan, that the 
Indian was one of the Apachos Emponzonadores — the sect of the Poison- 
Hatchets, and I am — the Lord and my patron saint forgive me — a dead man ! ” 
Gladsden looked at the tomahawk, and, after the man’s utterance, thought 
the metal head gave out a sinister gleam. Then, recalling all he ever knew of 
copper poisoning, he said : 

“ Let me attend to the cut,” in a tone which made the sufferer see that he 
was taken as the victim of terror rather more than mortal pain. 

Still, as the gash was beyond his simple remedy, the Indian cataplasm which 
should have allayed the fiery feeling which, even augmented from the first, 
Pepillo yielded to his late enemy like a child, with that compliance of the Latin 
races under mortal injury. 

A seafarer knows much about cuts, and so, at the first glance after removing 
the herb poultice, Gladsden recognised that the cut, clean in infliction, was 
aggravated shockingly. 

“ You see !” cried the Mexican, triumphantly, as far as the victory over the 
other’s disbelief was concerned, but with acute agony at his certainty being con- 

U firmed ; “ am I not a lost man ? ” 

“ In that case,” replied the Englishman, taking up his gun and charging it 
methodically out of Farruco’s powder-horn as the nearest, “ I will go and 
see about the wearer of that woman’s dress whom I caught a glimpse of 
yonder, when you and your mate all but anticipated my shot at that screeching 
savage.” 

“ Don’t leave me l ” 


i8 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


“ But I roust ! Gallantry, my dear ex-captor.” 

“ Leave me not !” reiterated Pepillo, who had supported himself with his' 
gun whilst the Englishman had looked at his hurt, “for the sake of my widow 
and four little ones.” 

“ A bandit with a family,” observed Gladsden. “ This is curious.” 

“ Yes ; who know not of my mode of life,” appealed the salteador, falling into 
a seated position and clasping his hands. “ By the rules of our band — for I am 
one of the Caballeros de la Noche, of Matasiete — all my goods fall in to the 
gang ! but my wife — my Angela ! my little ones — my angelitos ! have still more 
compassion, you greatly noble American of the North, and hear my vivd voce 
testament in their behalf.” 

“ Go on,” was the reply. “ Considering where the commissioner to take 
oaths — who is only an Englishman, by the way, and no American of the 
Northern States — where he has his office opened, and the improbability of his 
traversing a wilderness of poisonous vermin of all descriptions to file your 
testament, it is a pure formality. However,” he added, the while the dying 
robber divided his time between a disjointed supplication and wrestlings 
against a pain that convulsed him severely at intervals more and more closely 
recurrent, “ will away your ’bacca-box and your knife and sash. I’ll do my 
best to carry them to the legatees.” 

“ Listen to me,” said Pepillo solemnly, and beckoning him to approach. 
His voice was singular in sound ; his features contorted, his clayey, pale face 
streaming with cold, thick perspiration. “ I have not always been a ranger of 
the prairie. I was a sailor, like you are, as I caught in your speech. Do you 
know the islands on the other coast of the Gulf of California?” 

“ I have only sailed round to Guaymas.” 

“ I will draw you the chart. Due north from Cantador Island I have a 
treasure. Laugh not, raise no brow in derision. In coin and emeralds, gold, 
silver, and pearls, I have over a million dollars.” 

“ Nonsense !” 

“ I am the last of the band of Colonel Dartois the Filibuster, and I tell you 
I am the sole treasurer of the crew.” 

The Englishman was not acquainted with that adventurer, of much notoriety 
in his day on the Pacific Coast, but the tone of the dying man was sincere. 

“ Be quick, then, thou dying one, to give the clue,” said he as if convinced, 
whether so or not. 


CHAPTER IV. 

A DESERT MYSTERY. 

Upon this enjoinder of so eminently practical a nature, and thoroughly aware 
of the necessity of haste, the fallen Mexican rapidly drew with his ram-rod 
end, upon a space of earth smoothed by his foot in its deerskin boot, like an 
antique tablet under the stylus, a map — rude, but, to a navigator, plain and 
ample. 


A Desert Mystery. 


19 


“At this point,” said he, “a sunken reef trends north and south, with a 
break at a little bow a quarter-mile from the black rock that juts out all but 
flush with its ripple. Deep water in ‘ the pot,’ and there we anchored to ride 
to a submerged buoy, so that the canker-worm would not attack the metal or 
the borer the wood — a chest, bound with yellow metal. If it shall have broke 
away, its weight would only have sunk it deep in the oyster bed, all the shells 
there smashed to powdery scales by the drags. A diver will find it for 
you, then. 

“ Now, swear to me 1 ” he went on, forcing his weakening voice to keep an 
even tenor. “ Swear that one-half the contents of that hiding-place shall he 
Ignazio Santamaria’s, my brother-in-law’s, who will give enough to his sister, 
my Angela. And the rest — be it yours, brave and Christian heart.” 

Whether he was only fostering a delusion, or accepting a commission that 
would enrich him, Gladsden nodded assent. 

“ But, swear ! ” 

“ I give you my word, as an English gentleman,” said he, obstinately. 

“ I am content.” 

“ And what is there stowed there away ? ” with a smile of his former discredit 
“ copper bolts ? ” 

“ Pearls! the choicest from Carmen Island to Acapulco.” 

“ Well, that sounds natural enough. The next thing is, where shall I find 
your brother Ignazio and the rest of the family, Master Pepillo Santamaria?” 

Poignant anguish rendered the other unconscious of external matter for a 
period; he clutched his head with both hands as if to pervent the bones 
flying asunder, then recovering his senses, as the paroxysm quitted him, he 
said, 

“ You have not far to go for my brother. As for the dear ones, they are at 
the old town of Guaymas. My brother is here ” 

“ Here ! the devil ! ” looking round and falling on guard. 

“ At the Mound Tower.” He pointed with a wavering finger to the north-east. 
“ Not two hours’ ride, our rendezvous — a robber’s rendezvous — but have no fear ! 
Ignazio is second of the band, — remember, his sister’s fortune is at stake ! Call 
him out from among the crew — the signal, our private signal, two miaows of 
the catamount — Ignazio is knowA as the Gattomontes } mark ! Have 
mercy ! Remember the pearls ! my wife — my little angels ! pity 1 ” 

Gladsden averted his gaze not to witness an agony which he could not stay 
relieve or bid cease. When he looked on Pepillo again, he was dead. 

As it threatened to come on dark, not only by the disappearance of the sun, 
but by a storm, which the seaman divined, rather than perceived in progress, 
he bent a silver coin, so as to make a species of pencil, with the point at the 
double, and using some cigarette paper, copied off, “ in silver point,” the map 
which the dead pirate, cum pearl-fisher, plus highwayman, had designed on ti e 
ground bedewed with his blood. Whilst so employed, the Englishman repeated 
to himself, like a scholar beating a lesson into his brain, the instructions 
connected with this singular testament. 

Recalling his intention before the robber’s appeal had distracted him, 
Gladsden, gun in hand, marched with a determination not to be cried “halt ! ” 
to again, towards the huge cottonwood stump, by which he marked the scene 
of the Mexican standing at bay against the Apaches. 

The latter’s remains were there, a fresh-made grave (covered with stones and 
brambles to prevent the attack of the quadrupedal ghouls to which the luckless 
red man was consigned, in most probability), concealed Don Josd de Miranda 
from the searcher’s eyes. A fragment of Dolores’ attire was all that prevented 


20 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


Gladsden from supposing he had been the prey of an illusion as to a woman 
having also occupied that natural pedestal. To complete the puzzle a spade 
of North-American make was carelessly lying by the fresh mound. 

“ Hilli-ho 1 ahoy there ! ” cried the Englishman, fortified against fear of the 
bandits by the claim he had upon the lieutenant of the band, and caring not a 
jot for Indians or others, since he had his gun in shooting order. 

But save the mocking of birds there was no rejoinder. 

Afar he heard thunder, though. 

“ A mound tower must be prominent,” he mused, “and this thicket in a torrent- 
rain and a tornado is worse accommodation than the toughest highwayman 
must accord the bearer of an inheritance. I’ll make for the Mound Tower, 
and implore Senyor Don El Sostenedor, of the most glorious robber chief 
What’s-his-name, for a corner of his stronghold, a chunk of deer’s meat, and a 
swig of pulque.” 

He returned to the two dead men, loaded his belt with such of their weapons 
as completed, not to say repleted, a portable arsenal, which an Albanian 
janissary would have envied, and, with the same heedlessness as to south- 
western travelling precautions which had heretofore distinguished him, stepped 
manfully away from the haunt of murder. Ere he had taken half-a-dozen 
strides, he heard many a soft padded foot in the bushes ; the volunteer sextons 
Of the prairie were flocking to entomb the dead in their unscrupulous maw. 

The thunder boomed more audible, and the eagle screamed defiance over the 
lonely adventurer’s head. 


CHAPTER V. 

THE GODSEND. 

The inhabitants of the wilderness, red or white, black or yellow, obliged often 
to “ let go of all,” as our sailor friend would word it, and “ get ” (as he would 
probably say if his foolhardy behaviour allowed him to live long enough in 
that region to acquire the cant language), and pretty suddenly too, to follow the 
chase or avoid an ambush, are necessitated to abandon their plunder and traps, 
using these words in their legitimate sense. As, at the same time, they have 
no inclination to renounce their property, they bank it, or, as the trappers say, 
cache it. 

The model cache is thus constructed : The first thing is to spread blankets or 
buffalo robes around the chosen spot for the excavation, which is scooped out 
in any desirable shape with knives and flat stones; all the extracted ground, 
loam, sand, or whatever its nature, being carefully put on the spreads. When the 
pit is sufficiently capacious it is lined with buffalo hides to keep out damp, and 
the valuables are deposited within, even packed up in hide, if necessary. The 
earth is restored and trodden down, or rammed firmly with the rifle-butts, water 
is sometimes sprinkled on the top to facilitate the settling, and upon the 
replaced sod to prevent it dying after the injury to its roots. All the earth left 
over is carried to a running water, or scattered to the four winds, so as to make 


The Godsend. 


11 


the least evidences of the concealment vanish. The cache is generally so well 
hidden that only the eye of an uncommonly gifted man can discover it. Often, 
then, he only chances upon one that has been -opened and emptied by the 
owners, who, after that, of course, were easy in their second operation. The 
contents of a well-constructed cache may keep half-a-dozen years without 
spoiling. 

Benito Bustamente believed he had been led to die upon a cache. 

To a man dropping of fatigue and famine such a find was of inestimable 
value. It might reasonably offer him the primary necessities of which he was 
denuded, and he would be revived, literally, on being furnished with the means 
to fight his way to civilisation, where otherwise he and Dolores, always hoping 
the young girl had not preceded him past the bourne, must perish. 

For a few instants, propped up on both hands, in a wistful attitude, which I 
never saw in a pictorial representation of a human being, but which was recalled 
to me by the pose of the bloodhound in Landseer’s picture of the trail of blood, 
in which floats a broken plume. 

A moment of suspense 1 

He was swayed by indefinable sensations, fascinated, so as to be fearful of 
breaking the spell. 

When, at length, he mastered his emotion, he did not forget the duty of an 
honest man constrained to invade the property of another, though that other 
might be his enemy 1 

Trapper law is explicit; wanton breaking into a cache is punishable by death. 

So he shaped out a square of the sod with a sharp mussel-shell which he spied 
a-glistening near him, and slowly removed that piece, anxiously quivering in 
the act. Other turf he removed in the same manner, more and more sure 
that it was a cache. This preliminary over, he paused to take breath, and to 
enjoy the luxury of discounting a pleasure which came as veritable life in the 
midst of death. 

Then he resumed a task terrible for one exhausted by privations and loss of 
blood. Many times he was forced to stop, his energy giving out. 

Slow went on the work ; no indications of his being correct arose to cor- 
roborate his surmise. The shell broke, but then he used the two fragments, 
held in his hand with such tenacity that they seemed to be supplementary nails. 
Vain as was the toil, here lay, he still believed, the sole chance of safety ; if 
heaven smiled on his efforts, his darling Dolores might yet be a happy woman. 
So he clung to this last chance offered by happy hazard with that energy of 
despair, the immense power of Archimedes, for which nothing is impossible. 

The hole, of no contemptible size, yawned blankly before him. Nothing 
augured success, and, whatever the indomitable energy of the young man’s 
character, he felt discouragement cast a new gloom over his soul. His eyelids, 
red with fever, licked up the tear that ventured to soothe them, and his lips 
cracked as he pressed them together. 

“ At least, here I dig a grave for Don Josd, and my poor love,” he said 
wildly. “ It shall be deep enough to baffle the wolf 1 ” 

He renewed his tearing at the soil, when suddenly the shells snapped off, 
both pieces together, and his nails also scraping something of a different 
material to the earth, turned back at their jagged ends, but not at that supreme 
moment giving him the pain which at another time the same accident must 
have caused. Some hairs were mingled with the earth, and a scent different 
from that of the freshly bared ground intoxicated him with its musk. 

Disdaining the shattered mussel-shell, he used his hands as scoops, and pre- 
sently unearthed a buffalo skin. 


22 


The Treasure of Pearls , 


Instead of tugging at it with greedy relish to feast on the treasure it doubt* 
/essly muffled, Benito drew back his hands and stared with worse tribulation than 
ever. 

A cache — yes ! A full one — who knew ? 

Long ago it might have been pillaged. With but one movement between 
him and the verification or annihilation of his hopes the Mexican hesitated. 
He was frightened. 

His labour under difficulties had been so great, he had cherished so many 
dreams and nursed so many chimeras, that he instinctively dreaded the seeing 
them swiftly to flee, and leave him falling from his crumbling anticipations 
into the frightful reality that closed in upon him with inexorable jaws. 

In the end, determined to do or die, for to that it had truly come, Benito’s 
trembling hands buried themselves in the buffalo robe, clutched it irresistibly 
and hauled it up into his palpitating bosom. His haggard eyes swam with 
joyful gush of many tears, so that he could not see the sky to which he had 
raised them in gratitude. 

Benito had fallen on a hunter’s and trapper’s store. Not only were there traps 
and springes of several sorts, weapons, powder horns, bullet-bags, shot-moulds, 
leaden bars, horse caparisons, hide for lassoes, but eatables in hermetically- 
sealed tins of modern make, not then familiar to Mexicans, and liquor in bottles 
protected by homemade wicker and leather plaiting. 

He was stretching out his hands ravenously to the bottles and a role of 
jerked beef, when it seemed to him that the voice of the Unseen prompted him 
with “ God! thank God! ” and repeating the words in a voice unintelligible 
from stifling emotions, he fairly swooned across the pit as if to defend it with 
his poor, worn, hard-tried body. 

His face was serene when he unclosed his eyes anew. Soberly, by a great 
control, he ate of some tinned meat and the crackers and swallowed as slowly 
some cognac. The latter filled him with fire, and he could have leaped into a 
tree-top and crowed defiance to the vultures which were sailing overhead as 
if baulked of their prey. 

In that momentary calmness, he felt so strong and so rejoiced in his self- 
command that his spirit seemed to spurn its casket. But instantly, with the 
blood careering anew, the wound in his shoulder smarted furiously, and all 
down that arm and up to his neck he felt a strange and novel sensation ; it was 
as if molten lead was in the veins, scorching and making heavy the limb. 

“The arrow! Iam poisoned 1” he muttered. “ Oh, is this windfall come 
merely to embitter my death ! ” 

That taste of liquor made his mouth water, and there was suggested to him 
by the sight of the brandy bottle that here was the remedy which the wisest 
frontiersman and medicine man would have prescribed. He put the cognac to 
his lips, and emptied the bottle. 

Almost instantly he felt an aching in every pore away and beyond that of 
the wound; his brain appeared to swell to bursting its cell, and howling 
himself hoarse, he thought — though, in reality, his inarticulate cries were 
strangled in his throat — he rolled upon the ground, too weak to dance upon his 
feet, as he imagined he was doing. 

This intoxication left him abruptly, and he fell insensible. But for his 
stertorious breathing, which finally became egular and gentle, he was as a 
corpse beside the greedy grave. 

He woke up, lame in every bone, but clear-eyed, and the ringing in his head 
abated. Either the remedy had succeeded, or constitution, for he was able tO 
set about his task with surprising vigour. 


Any Port in a Storm. 


*3 


Thereupon, he chose out of the store a pair of revolvers, their cartridges in 
quantity, two powder-horns and bullets to fit the finest rifle, a bowie-knife and 
a cutlass, and a length of leather thong to make a lasso, and a spade for the 
grave of Don Jose, filled a game bag with matches in metal boxes, sewing 
materials, and other odds and ends for the traveller. Tobacco, too, he took, 
and was looking for paper to make cigarettes, when a small book met 
his eyes. 

It was stamped in gold, “ London, Liverpool, and West State of Mexico 
Agnas Caparrosas Mining Company.” It was an account book of the company 
— one of those enterprises to which, he had heard, his father had lent a 
favourable attention. A pencil was attached to the book ; he wrote on a 
blank page the list of all the articles he took, signing, 

“ Require the payment of me. — I, Benito Vasquez de Bustamente.” 

As quickly as he could he replaced what he did not wish to be burdened with, 
made the concealment good, and swept the grass with two buffalo skins, which 
he had also taken*for clothing. This duty of a thankful and honourable man 
being accomplished, he darted back to where he had left Dolores with a free 
and easy movement, of which he had not believed himself ever again to be 
capable only a short time before. 

He was amazed that a little food and spirit had restored him, and began to 
fear the reaction. 

His wits remained clear. He remembered very distinctly indeed his 
confrontation of the savage who had been blasted as by a heavenly thunderbolt. 
He was not surprised when he found that redskin where he had rolled him. 
But what was his pain when he saw no trace of Dolores but the same 
fragment of her dress which Gladsden was, soon after, also to behold 1 

Sounds in the chaparral which reminded him of the four-footed scavengers 
in rivalry of the carrion birds that circled above, urged him to ply the spade, 
and he piously laid Don Jose to his final rest. 

Then, his rifle loaded, his frame fortified by the refreshment which he took 
at intervals on his march, he went forward in the trail which the abductor of 
the Mexican’s daughter had been unable, so burdened, to avoid making 

I manifest, all his emotions, even gratitude to the chief, set aside for the desire of 
vengeance on the remorseless foes to whom he owed so many and distressful 
losses, and on whom he had not yet been enabled to inflict any reprisal. 

“ Let me but overtake him, or them,” thought he, “ before the tempest 
obliterates this track with its deluge, and I will flesh this sword, or essay this 
new rifle on his vile carcass ! ” 


CHAPTER VI. 

r PORT IN A STORM. 

Gladsden was groping along when he perceived the thorn thicket changing 
into a prairie, only slightly interspersed with scrub. At the same time, though 
underfoot, the scene cleared, the indications of atmospherical perturbation 
increased in number and in ominous importance. Already the material man 
triumphed over the romantic one, and our Englishman thought considerably 



24 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


better of a solid refuge from the tempest than to come up with the abductor of 
the Mexican girl. Spite of its sinister aspect, therefore, his eyes were 
delighted when he saw, outlined against the north-eastern sky, sullenly 
blackening, a curiously shaped tower. In a civilised country he would have 
ignobly supposed it a factory shaft. 

He knew nothing whatever about this pillar of sun-baked bricks, some fifty 
feet in altitude, and, we repeat, cared nothing for the monument from any 
point of view but its qualities as a shelter. 

Nevertheless, an archaeologist would have given a fortune to have studied 
this Nameless Tower, for the aboriginal held it too sacred for mention in 
common parlance. It was slightly pyramidal ; the north side, not quite the 
true meridian, presented a right angle, presumably to breast and divide the 
wind of winter prevalent at its erection, while the rest was rounded trimly. 
The excellence of the work was better shown in the cement, not mud, or 
ground gypsum, having resisted the weather and particularly the sandy winds 
themselves, though they had worn the dobies ( adobes , sun-dried bricks) away 
deeply in places, without making air-holes through. There was nothing like 
a window or depression save these natural pits, until the view reached the 
ragged top, where a sort of lantern or cupola, so far as a few vestiges indicated, 
had once crowned the edifice ; there the floor of this disappeared chamber had 
become the roof, and an orifice, perhaps a loophole enlarged by rot, yawned 
like a deepset eye beside an arm of metal terminating in a hook. Presumably 
the column was a priest’s watch-tower, where a sacred fire was preserved in 
peace times to imitate the sun. It is known, the ancient Mexicans adored the 
sun. A beacon, too, in war times, for the fire and smoke signal code of t-he 
American Indians is too complete to have been the invention of yesterday. 
The entrance at the base cut in the rock utilised for nearly all the foundation. 
Once blocked up, the watcher, remote from lances, sling-shots, and bowshots, 
could count the besiegers on this plain, and telegraph their number to his 
friends at a distance. The metal arm may have suspended a pulley-block 
and rope by which provisions and even an assistant could be hauled up to j 
him. 

The natives avoid the tower and its proximity. The white rovers deem it 
uncanny, and, having no curiosity to gratify, also leave the spot untroubled. 

Gladsden regarded the tall mass with some uneasiness as he approached 
sufficiently near to measure its dimensions and examine the emblems stained, 
rather than painted, on the alabaster basestone. A colossal half-human, half- I 
bovine head, armed with terrible horns, and showing long angular teeth in a 
ferocious grin, was prominent among these designs. 

All was so still that he hesitated to wake the echoes with a more or less 
tolerable imitation of the wild cat, to which no response came, or if from a dis- 
tance such was raised, the approaching thunder-peals overcame it. 

He boldly plunged into the doorless passage, the way to which had been to a 
more wary man suspiciously free from brambles. 

A smell of smoke, and even of tobacco smoke, he thought, overcame that of 
damp earth. 

The only light was that which the doorway admitted, but several plates of 
mica, backed rudely with metal, which time and damp had tarnished, made the 
interior a little less sombre by their dull reflections. A ladder of wood, all the 
fastenings of raw hide, could be distinguished climbing like a twin-snake up the 
wall ; on high a grayish eye seemed to look unwinkingly down : it was the light 
oozing in at the gap at the top. 

There were red streaks on the wall : paintings in red pipe-clay partially 


Any Port in a Storm. 25 


Effaced, or mementoes of slaughter, just as the spectator chose to believe or 
'Sincy. 

At the moment, the intruder was chiefly interested in the charcoal under his 
cot, almost warm, certainly so fresh that he concluded that others than he chose 
t for a refuge under stress of weather, no doubt Master Pepillo’s congeners. 

Less courageous, he would have shrunk away without pondering over the 
ature of his predecessors, possibly regular hosts of this lugubrious domicile of 
wl and vulture. 

Convinced that he was, for the time being, the sole tenant, Gladsden re- 
vived, however, to explore the portion unrevealed. To his hands and feet the 
adder presented no obstacle, and he ran up the rough rattlins swiftly, spite of 
ladgue. It brought him into a species of manhole under the roof, dose to the 
'•ap, and yet shielded from its draft by a jutting piece of wall. 

“This will do,” thought he, finding it dry and clean ; “ I will kill a brace of 

I rds frightened into stupidity by the oncoming storm, roast them on that 
arcoal, and bring them up here for supper. If the robbers surprise me, I will 
naintain that I was merely killing time before the arrival of Lieutenant Ignazio, 
nd claim that gentleman’s friendship by reason of my charge from his brother, 
f I am interrupted, I shall pull up the ladder, in trust that it will come free, 
d rid sleep here, safe from prowling beasts and serpents.” 

Suddenly gloom fell on all the landscape, as if a mighty hand had eclipsed 
be waning sun. The air was very much more thick and oppressive, and there 
vere innumerable though faint crepitations like feeble snappings of electricity. 
Co take the game he spoke of, before the rainfall drowned them out of their 

I its, it was needful to hasten. But he had not descended three rounds of the 
der, before he stopped all of a piece. From every side, there was the sound of 
arrival of men, both on foot and a-horse. Instinctively he drew himself 
arranged his form on the floor so as to project only his forehead and eyes 
jr the ledge where ended the means of ascension, and stared below. 

\ number of persons, congratulating themselves on their reunion loudly with 
> hyperbolic phrases of the Spanish ceremony of greeting, clattered into the 
yer. Presently a light was struck, and a roaring fire kindled. As the shaft 
is became the chimney, Gladsden was forced to cough, though he smothered 
: sound as much as possible, hoped, as did the man who lighted the damp 
od, that it would lose no time in burning up clearly. 

When he could protrude his face over the peephole again, he beheld a 
zen persons, swarthy, robust, richly clad as the prairie rovers, or cattle 
hfeves, armed to the teeth. Cruel of eye, malignant and ferocious, he judged it 
ighly imprudent to make their acquaintance, unless Ignazio was the introducer. 
Before very many sentences were uttered, every syllable of which came to his 
ars direct, the over-hearer was not allowed to cherish any error as to their 
profession. They were the Gentlemen of the Night, the road-robbers, the 
courges of Sonora, belonging to the squad ( cuadrilla ) of Matasiete, “ the 
Slayer of Seven.” 

The gestures of the Mexicans grew animated as they sat around the fire, or 
caned against the wall, which the gleams showed to be painted by the Indians ; 
ow and then they clapped their unwashed but jewelled hands to their weapons — 
t which moments the witness earnestly prayed that they would join in a free 
ght and kill every one to the last. They were wrangling over the division of 
jspoil, and perhaps the plunder would have cost additional lives to those of its 
riginal proprietors, when the advent of some one in authority caused the 
dispute to cease. It was their. captain. 

He was not the heroic figure that Gladsden had imagined fit to rule such 


3 6 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


desperadoes. He was tall, but lean, Don Quixote with Punch’s nose and chin, 
rather the fox than the wolf, and though his features were set stern and his voice 
was savage, doubts might be conceived as to his own reliance on his bullying 
mode of government. 

“ At your differences again,” he cried in a sharp voice, which now and then 
ran up shrill and high, spite of himself, more to the resemblance of the puppet- 
show hero than ever. “ Caray ! why can’t you pull together like honourable 
gentlemen of the prairie?” 

Two of the brigands began an explanation which their leader cut short by 
replying to the less ruffianly of the two ; 

“ Silence 1 I’ll not be bothered by a single word ! Viva Dios ! Here you are 
hugging the fire like herders broiling a steak, without a thought of our 
common safety. I have had to post sentries myself, and even they grumbled 
at such important duty, just because there is a barrel of water coming down. 
I tell you I heard a shot in the thicket, which was not from any of our guns.” 

Another of the gang spoke up, with whom he judged it meet to argue. It 
is due to the estimable Captain Matasiete to say that the debater in question 
was picking a fragment of buffalo beef out of a huge hollow grinder, with an 
unpleasant long knife. 

“ It is true, Ricardo, that the red men do never approach the Owl Tower ; 
but what is that ? Some day our secret haunt will be surprised and the Yaquis 
will fall on us for profaning the old pile. Where is Ignazio ? Where is the 
lieutenant, I say ? ” 

Neither he nor his brother had arrived, that was the answer, to Mr. Glads- 
den’s chagrin. 

“ Then will they get their boots choked with rain,” remarked the commander 
of these precious rogues, comfortably installing himself at the fire, in the very 
manner which he had disapproved of in his men. There was a flash of light- 
ning. The thunder roared round the tower, which bravely met the precursor 
shower, though it was of a drenching nature to justify the repugnance of the 
salteadors to standing sentinel in the open, whilst their luckier comrades 
enjoyed the shelter and the fire. 

There was silence within the tower: the bandits, drawing a little aloof from 
their chief, in respect or lack of sympathy, prepared supper, priced their pro- 
perty with a view of staking it in card-play, or, as far as two or three were con- 
cerned, lounged at the door, watching the ground smoke after the wetting, 
and glancing tauntingly at their brothers on guard, who shone with moisture 
in the chance ray from the glorious fire. 

The extreme heat around Gladsden, his fatigue and a dulness engendered by 
the recent strain on his faculties, forced his eyes to close now and then, and he 
was about falling info a torpor, when a commotion below aroused him. 

A man, clanking his huge spurs to rid them of mud and rotten leaves, 
drenched almost through his blanket, splashed to the waist, his tough leather 
breeches scored by wait-a-bit thorns, swearing at the dog’s weather, wringing 
out his hair, for he had lost his hat — this individual, hailed amicably as “^our 
dear Ignazio,” but heedless of the welcome in his vexation and a species of 
alarm, pushed aside his comrades flocking round him, and, saluting the 
captain, basking in the fire-beams, said reproachfully, 

“ My brother not here ? Then ill fares him! There are strangers in the 
chaparral 1 ” 

“Strangers I ’’all the voicesexclaimed, whilst weapons clattered their scabbards. 

From only this transient glance at Don Ignazio, the Englishman made up 
his mind that he would not trust him with his life. * 


CHAPTER VII. 


A WAKING NIGHTMARE. 

1 Aye, strangers, and no jokers ! But to my tale. Captain, in the first place 
■our Indian hireling has done his work well. He slew the Don — the youngster, 
opine — and, as for the damsel, why I have had her on my arm this half-hour, 
11 the storm forced me to cache her ! ” • 

“ Aha ! good ! ” said the captain, rubbing his hands on his nearly roasted 
:n£es. “Albeit, I am sorry that the girl escaped. I’d as lief marry the aunt 
d obtain the Miranda Hacienda, as wed the lass and be saddled with the 
►Id lady.” 

“Well, she’s next to dead. The Apache worried them sore, so that they 
xve had no food.” * 

“ And he ? Did you pay him, as I suggested ? ” 

“ I followed him up to administer the dose of lead, but I was anticipated. 
Some strangers, I tell you, are roaming the desert, and blew a tunnel through 
is head.” 

“And Pepillo ? ” questioned Ricardo. 

“ Either lying perdu till the storm abates, or gratified with the same pill. It 
s a deuce of a heavy gun to carry a bullet so large and so true.” 

An American rifle?” queried the captain, uneasily, whilst Gladsden, 
atting his gun silently, so conveyed to it the flattering fear with which its 
rowess had inspired the depredators. 

“ It is this way,” went on Ignazio, who saw that all eyes were bent on him. 
I struck the broad trail of the Don and the Apache. I heard a shot of an 
nknown piece, so I alighted, hoppled my mule, and, making a circuit, entered 
\e thicket afoot, going slow because of my spurs. 

“ Soon I came to a sort of glade, where a big tree stump stands. There the 
ndian had sent an arrow through Don Jose, and there the unknown had sent a 
eavy bullet through him. All was quiet. No sign of the young man, their guide, 
ut the senorita, the heiress, lay as one dead at the stump. I felt no pulse. 
Her eyes were closed. I took her up and made for my mule, but, either I had 
lissed my mark or had strayed. No mule. Then, believing he would come here, 
nee he has a sneaking affection for your horses, captain, I tried to carry the 
irl on my own way hither. She was light as a feather, but the thorns are a 
eritable net to catch humming-birds, and then, again, the storm about to 
reak 1 faith, I hid her in a hollow tree, and hastened on. But I was overtaken 
y the rain, and am as tattered as a leper o ! ” 

“ And Pepillo ? ” 

He was never born to be drowned in the deluge upon us,” answered 
ieutenant Ignazio, with no superabundance of fraternal affection, as he sat at 
e fire, and overhauled the rent raiment. “ We will fish for him and the girl, 
the day.” 

“ But if she was spent, she will die of starvation,” remarked Matasiete, with 
spark of humanity or of affection. 

“ Pshaw 1 as you say, you can, in the character of Don Annibal de Luna, 
iiarry the old lady and so obtain the property ; besides, I left my flask of 



28 


The Treasure of P earls , 


aguardiente (fire-water, or whiskey) in her cold pit, and that’s meat-and-drink 
eh, gentlemen ? ” 

A silence ensued, the others having nodded a double tribute to his gallantr} 
and the potency of raw spirits. 

“ I do not like the young man being out of your view,” said Matasiete, wIk 
had a small, carping spirit, “ If he should not meet Pepillo and Farruco ” 

“ Crawled off with an arrow in him to die in the bushes,” was the reply 
“That Apache is one of the poisoners, you know, and nothing that will not cure £ 
rattlesnake bite, will subdue the venom of his wounds. A good riddance whoevei 
perforated his skull! and here’s his health,” holding up a horn of spirits or 
high as though he divined the actual whereabouts of the avenger of Don Jost 
de Miranda. 

“ There is Farruco still to come in,*’ said the captain, yawning. 

“ Pah! he’s under a stone like an iguana! If he eludes the rain as cleverly as \ 
he does the leaden hail when we attack a caravan, methinks he will turn up ir 
the day as dry as the core of a miser’s heart.” 

Meanwhile, the storm, which had but inadequately manifested its power ir 
the heralding blow and pour, now swept across the plain and buffeted the 
tower. It began to rock, and the sentries, who set discipline at defiance and, 
had come into the shelter, were half afraid that they had not taken the wisei ! 
course. Whatever their terror below, that of Gladsden would have been more 
justifiable, for the loose stones atop were moved at each gust, and some fell ! 
both within and without. The prospect of the lightning-bolt flinging him 
scathed to the death, amid ruins, upon the *knot of robbers, was quite within 
reasonable surmise. 

He wrapped his gun up Heside him, so that its steel should not attrac 
the flame that seemed, when it played within his nook, to linger upon him 
and expected the worst between the two perils. 

All at once, splitting the rolling thunder in its higher key, a frightened voice | 
cried out, “ The horses ! there is a stampede I ” 

Notwithstanding the pouring rain, half-a-dozen of the bandits rushed out 
But almost instantly returning, they gladly reported that the agitation amonj | 
the horses was caused, not so much by their fright at the lightning, as by the 
mad gambols of Ignazio’s mule, which, running into the,group tethered on the 
leeward of the tower, was plying tooth and hoof in order to range himsel 
near the horse to which he had taken one of those devoted fancies not uncom 
mon among the hybrids. Instead of their forming amass, rounded in shape 
their tails outward, to meet the rain, they half encircled the tower, accommo 
dating themselves to the wind, which was shifting to the south-east. 

“ The old tower holds firm,” said Ignazio, his mouth full of beef, as he pliec 
a needle and fine deer’s sinew for thread in the reparation of his leggings. 

“ Only the gale shakes out a tooth of the old hag’s head,” said his neighbour 
on whom sundry fragments of the crumble had fallen. 

“ Ha ! ” ejaculated Don Matasiete, abruptly, as he clapped his long hand tc i 
his head, and then clutched the object which had struck him there, and thei 
rolled into the ashes. He had pulled it forth with amazing alacrity. “ Sine* 
when has this tower been built with cartridges?” 

“ What ! ” was the general cry, as all, like the speaker, looked upward. 

“ I tell you that this fell on my head. If it rains more of the like we mus 
dash out the fire, or we’ll be blown higher than the eagle flies ! ” 

Every man had drawn a weapon. Their-ignorance of meteorology might b< 
great or little, but cartridges do not come with Mexican rain often enough tc 
be calmly accepted without an inquisition. & 


A Waking Nightmare . 


29 


“ The strangers ! ” cried the captain, prudently backing towards the wall at 
the point furthest from the ladder’s end. “ Have they come in among us?” 

“Stuff! what man in his lightness of heart would leap thus into the wolf’s 
throat? ” 

“ That’s all very well put, Ricardo,” rejoined the leader. “ But they may 
have preceded you, and not known that this is our lair. Just climb up and see 
if, by any chance, we are receiving uninvited guests.” 

Ricardo, who was singled out, was a burly rogue, but he did not accept this 
order. On the contrary he made a wry face and thrust his cheek out with his 
tongue, which signified “ go and do it yourself.” This incipient mutiny was 
clearly contagious, for all the bandits returned their commander’s interrogative 
look with another, defiant, stupid, or complacent, pursuant to their natures. 

Any child could have drawn the inference that the quarter whence cartridges 
were showered might logically be expected to furnish a gun or two. The 
figurative language of the western man ranking a packet of lead and ball, or 
arrows, as the case varies of its being a white or a red man who sends the 
message, as an equivalent for a challenge to mortal combat — each bandit so 
interpreted the accident. 

“ Poltroons ! ” cried Matasiete, “is there room, save on the platform itself, 
for a troop of men ? and would one man stand amid the lightning on this 
rocking tower top ! I tell you. if there is a man there it will be in the nook 
where the ladder is suspended. One man 1 well, where are my brave fighting, 
cocks now?” 

One man, armed with such a gun as that cartridge of unusual calibre 
promised, could very easily defend even that despicable nook against a whole 
coop of gamecocks. So the hesitation to climb the ladder rather augmented 
than diminished. 

“ Poltroons, eh ? ” observed Ignazio, to whom the incident perhaps came in 
harmony with some project of his own. “ If it is nothing uncommon to go 
and see what owl has alighted in the tower top — an owl whose eggs are 
. cartridges, by the way — why don’t you show your superior courage? Show 
your hardly-too-often-distinguished daring, captain, by going up and wringing 
the neck of the fowl of evil omen yourself.” 

“ Q — go myself?” repeated Matasiete, whilst the robbers grinned more or less 
audibly. 

“ Yes, go yourself,” returned the impudent lieutenant, “the more particularly 
as now that you have no impediment to seize the property of Don Jos£ de 
Miranda, you are going to marry richly and settle down as a farming gentle- 
man, and will have no more opportunities of exhibiting your gallantry. Yes, 
go yourself ! and, moreover, be quick about it, or the strangers, whoever they 
maybe, may come down in impatience at your neglect of your duty of host 
and demand an account of your reluctant hospitality, face to beard, them- 
selves.” 

Matasiete did not number that defect among his of the sanguine dog who 
perpetually lets go the substance to snap at the shadow. Whatever the 
brilliancy of the prospect of obtaining the estate of Miranda, at present that 
of losing the command of the salteadors was more at hand. Besides, best 
knowing what valuables were sewn up in the hem of his dress, or contained in 
his money-belt, in case, by robbers’ law, judged a coward, and kicked out from 
their punctilious midst, stripped to the skin, this property would be lost to 
him, the captain made an effort. 

“Then I will show you that I never set a command which I would not have 
executed myself 1 ” spoken with a tremor, but loudly, to daunt the object aimed 


30 


The Treasure of Pearls , 


at above. “ I will mount, and not a cartridge, but the corpse of any one who 
has ventured to pry into our secrets, will shortly come hustling down 
among ye 1 " 

He made one bound to the ladder, put his knife between his teeth, to 
prevent them chattering as much as to have the blade handy, and ascended 
briskly with his long legs at the start. 

It would be unjust to say that Gladsden, who had heard all this scene, 
without caring to lean over and witness it lest the gleam of his eyes, 
reflecting the fire-rays, should betray him and draw a pistol-shot, was daunted 
by either the words of the redoubtable robber or his approach. Any one man, 
or two or three, come to that, caused him no apprehension, for he had all the 
advantages of position. But, after repulsing them, how could he hope to hold 
out a long time without food or drink ? 

An idea of subterfuge had struck him, which was only feasible to a seaman. 

We observed that Matasiete had mounted the ladder briskly “ at the start.” 
It is true. But, when he had some twenty feet yet of the ascent to make, his 
action grew less commendable. He even framed an address, in appeal, to be 
uttered in a whisper only loud enough for the unknown occupant of the turret 
niche, full of promises or threats if he would only keep quiet, and allow the 
investigator to return uninjured and state there was an absence of ground 
for the alarm he had himself unfortunately originated. 

In the meantime the Englishman, attributing the slowness of this up-comer’s 
movement to his cowardice, believed he would be only too glad to find no 
occasion for his long stay at the top of the ladder. 

So he thrust his head out of the gap before mentioned, and examined the 
metal arm socketed in the wall. It was not iron, but bronze, full three feet 
long to the hook, a little thicker than the thumb. It was planted solidly in a 
horizontal direction. 

Without further reflection, hearing the respiration of Captain Matasiete, who 
had been goaded on by the whisperings ascending of his men beginning to 
criticise his halt, Gladsden noiselessly pushed his legs out, bent forward, seized 
the bronze bar with both hands with that grip which enables the sailor to defy 
the squall to dislodge him from the yard, and hung stiffly at arm’s length over 
the void. 

If tne Mexican saw him in looking out of the window by one of the less 
frequent electrical flashes, he intended to kick him under the jaw, re-enter, 
convert the body into a rampart, and fight whilst there was a shot in the barrel, 
or till he had a chance to claim Ignazio’s safeguard. The lieutenant could but 
be grateful to a man who removed his superior in his favour, and, moreover, 
brought him a fortune. 

He had no more than assumed this trying position, being drenched to the 
skin at the very first instant of exposure, before Matasiete at last, with many 
misgivings pulling at his toes, lifted his head above the flooring, and, with 
indescribable joy, saw there was no one there. 

“Well, captain ?” was the half-ironical inquiry from below. 

“There is no one, you asses !” was the polite reply, in a gleeful tone. 

Gladsden sighed in relief as deep as the captain’s. 

“ Stand from under!” added the latter, putting his knife in its sheath. “ I 
am coming down.” 

The Englishman was saved ! 

He prepared to return within his nook. The imminent danger was over. 
The rain was unpleasant, and the uneasiness of horses beneath him which he 
heard whinnying as if thqy scented him, as was probable, offered the chance of 


A Waking Nightmare. 




exciting the curiosity of a Mexican, who would infallibly descry him if he 
looked up outside. So he wished to cut short the feeling of fatigue which 
already attacked his wrists and shoulders. But, at the first movement, what 
he believed a mere fancy was confirmed as fact: the bar was set with an un- 
alterable firmness which spoke volumes for the mason of old, but the metal, in 
which too much copper had been alloyed, or deteriorated by the weather, was 
slowly bending, arching over the abyss ! 

No time was there to spare. He began by shifting his grip, moving one 
hand inwards and bringing the outer up to it, to overcome the curve in the rod. 
He looked to the socket to make sure that it still held, when his anxious eyes 
met another pair in the very gap. They were the Mexican robber’s I 

Matasiete had smelt the powder, at least, he had, in a final and idle sweeping 
round of the visual ray, perceived the gun of the Englishman, which he had, 
nevertheless, concealed with unusual and creditable care in the angle of floor 
and wall. 

Now, Matasiete placidly leaning on the sill of the window, so to call it, fixed 
his ferocious eyes on Gladsden, gleaming with delight at having so complete a 
chance to avenge on another his companions’ taunts of cowardice. 

“ The owl ! ” he said ironically. 

“ You devil ! ” returned Gladsden, in English, for in such critical moments a 
man does not display his linguistical acquirements. 

Devil, indeed ! Matasiete drew his knife and slowly leaned outward in order to 
slash the poor wretch’s fingers to anticipate their relaxing the grasp on the 
over-drooping bar. 

The other made an offer to let go with one hand in the hope to get at a 
pistol to blow out the fiend’s brains at a snap-shot, but the impossibility of the 
feat was immediately so impressed upon him, that he grasped with a double 
hold once more in deeper desperation. 

“ Oh ! any death but this waking nightmare 1” he ejaculated, as a kind of 
prayer. 

Before his fingers should be pinched by his own weight, between the metal 
and the brickwork, he thought, by a final spurt of strength, to leap up and seize 
the grinning demon. 

“ No, you don’t ! ” cried the captain, guessing his aim, and leaning well out 
over him, gleaming steel in hand, “ thou shalt die like a dog.” 

He lifted his arm to strike. Gladsden shuddered in his anguish — his grasp 
did not relax, rather was it cramped, but he was thrust by his body coming 
sidewise to the wall, from that direction, and slid thus perforce to the end of 
the bar downwards. He closed his eyes not to see the knife and fiendish eyes, 
not to hear the devilish laugh, when a sharp shot resounded below, a bullet 
shrieked beside his tingling ear, and louder than the cry which the feeling of 
falling through space wrung from the brave man, seemed the shriek of Captain 
Matasiete, “creased ” through the prominent nose. 

Gladsden descended, like a rock loosened from a sierra summit, upon the 
plain below. Instead of the solid earth, however, he fell upon a warm yielding 
substance — the backs of a couple of horses. Clutching the mane of one at random 
— not the one on which he had landed, and of which he all but broke the 
back and so left paralysed — he was instantly carried away by the frightened 
steed. 

Behind him, as he was borne helter-skelter over the prairie, converted into 
a shallow lake, he heard the clamour of the Mexicans startled by the shot, and 
later by a stampede in reality of their horses. It seemed to him, stunned in a 
measure though he was, that in the thick of the swarm of quadrupeds madly in 


The Treasure of Pearls- 


3 2 


flight like his own, but in another direction, there was a figure, black and 
bowing its head between its steed’s ears, with a white object across the 
saddle-bow. 

But it was a mere glimpse ! a new Mazeppa, he went careering on an 
unchained thunderbolt over the prairie, whilst the old Tower quivered in a 
fresh onset of the tempest. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE “ LITTLE JOKER.” 

There rode a charming little sailing vessel in Guaymas Port. It flew the 
Chilian flag, was about a hundred and twenty tons register, and was named 
La Burlonilla, or “ Little Joker,” which might be interpreted innocently, or as a 
tacit allusion to the pea used in “thimblerig.” She was so coquettish, so fine of 
run, so light and buoyant, and yet carried a good spread of sail, that the ex- 
perienced Gladsden reckoned she would do her twelve knots an hour without 
shipping enough water to drown the purser’s cat. But there seemed to be some 
mystery attending the ownership. The shipkeeper allowed no one to inspect 
her closely, far less to board her, even threatening our Englishman with a 
blunderbuss. He heard at the Heaven-and- Liberty Tavern that she was con- 
signed to Don Stefano Garcia, kinsman of the General Garcia, mixed up with 
the intrigues of Santa Anna, a rich merchant-banker, and hide dealer. It was 
easy to make his acquintance by constituting him his banker, for a remittance 
of a goodly amount which came on, via New York and Mexico, just when he 
most wanted funds to enable him to ascertain what truth dwelt in Pepillo’s story. 

Besides, as an old resident of Sonora, he was just the man to help him to find 
the relict of the bandolero of Captain Matasiete, though the reason for this 
search he took care not to impart to Senyor Garcia. 

With an affability which was even noticeably extreme, Don Stefano accepted 
the double trust, and begged his new client to come out to his villa soon and 
dine with him — a pleasant habitude with bankers all the world over. 

Gladsden accepted the invitation. During the dinner — not bad for the 
place — the guest learnt that the goleta commanded a fancy price, say, twenty 
thousand dollars, and then would only be sold — not hired — if the owner, a 
capricious Chilian, rejoicing in the numerous and sonorous appellatives of 
Don Annibal Cristoval de Luna y Almagro de Cortes, had not changed his 
intention of living upland on an estate which would shortly become his through 
a marital alliance. 

After the repast, five or six friends of the host came in, and among them 
the bearer of the long titles, just taxing our pen again. 

In token of pretensions to be regarded as an unofficial, but all the more 
important representative of Chili, this dignitary wore a rich costume trimmed 
with gold, an immense cocked hat, after the style borne by Nelson’s enemies 
who were admirals at Trafalgar, bullion epaulettes that covered his upper 


The “ Little Joker 


33 


arms, high boots coming up over the knee, not to mention a colossal sabre. 
Under this accoutrement, nevertheless, Gladsden thought no stranger was 
displayed ; and, in fact, before he spoke, he recognised the individual who had 
grinned at him, like Quasimodo at Claude Frollo, dangling from the cathedral 
turret, out of the gap-like window of the Indian tower. The master of the 
Little Joker , the Chilian agent, was the captain of the Upper Sonora 
ravagers— Matasiete himself. The crease across his nose wasan additional token. 

Spite of his emotion, the Englishman hoped he had not betrayed the act of 
quick identification, all the more as Don Annibal, etc., making no sign of 
recognition, turned to chatting with the others without paying the foreigner 
any more heed. From a glance which he intercepted between the banker and 
the pretended Chilian, Gladsden was soon of the impression that there was a 
complete understanding there. He even jumped to the conclusion that the 
stranger in the Heaven-and-Liberty Tavern had been instructed to volunteer 
the hint that had caused our ever-imprudent Briton to form acquaintance 
with the robber’s banker. 

“ They are a deeper set than I imagined,” thought he. “The rogue is a 
pirate on land and sea. When there is no revolution in Mexico, and the 
authorities attend a little to police matters, oursalteador takes a summersault 
aboard his dainty craft, and goes slaving, pirating, or, at the least, pearl- 
fishing. If these guests are out of the same cask, by George ! I am going to 
pass a pleasant evening ! ” 

But there arose no question of the sale of the Burlonilla, or of anything con- 
nected with business. That was put off till the morrow, after the Spanish- 
American custom. 

But there did come up a topic of general interest — gaming. The American- 
Hispaniolans are inveterate gamblers ; it is their dominant passion. After 
having chatted and drank, amid the consumption of innumerable cigars, some- 
one proposed a monte, a suggestion thrown out only to be caught at a bound 
with enthusiasm. 

Other friends of Don Stefano had dropped in, so that the Englishman found 
more than a corporal’s guard arrayed against him. The collection now was 
composed of upwards of a score. 

A table happened to have the orthodox green cloth upon it, where the social 
“ tiger ” is prone to roam : new cards, sealed, of course, were brought in, and 
the sport began. 

Without being positively a player, Mr. Gladsden had the blood in his veins 
of his grandfather, who was a noted card player, a contemporary of Fox and 
Selwyn. Besides, he understood that he might offend if he stood aloof. 

The stakes were, at the outset, moderate, but gradually swelling, they soon 
attained staggering proportions, some of the points running up to a hundred 
and even a hundred and fifty ounces. The consequence was that in less than a 
couple of hours almost all the tilters were cleaned out, and had to become 
mere lookers-on. At midnight chance — if it were chance — arranged it that 
only two players were facing each other : Don Annibal of the Cortes Family, 
as he called himself at present, and Mr. Gladsden. The gallery, as the sur- 
rounding bystanders of a game are styled, cooped the pair in so that the 
European could not easily have withdrawn. All the time the master of the 
goleta had been a loser, and the Englishman having been luck favoured, was 
on the contrary supplied with considerable funds, which elicited many a covetous 
glance, 

“ Why!” ejaculated the pretended Chilian, with admirably feigned surprise, 
“ we two are left facing one another.” 

B 


34 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


“ So we are ! ” returned Mr. Gladsden, thinking, with all the possible 
mis'chances, he was more agreeably placed here vis-a-vis with the gentleman 
of the night, than clinging on a bar outside the top of a tower fifty feet high. 

“ Shall we two go it alone, captain ?” 

“ I was just going to ask the favour, captain.” 

The other “captain ” nodded and grinned under his long hook nose, to the 
banker and others at hand, as much as to say, “ Now I have my gentleman 
precisely in the corner I have been driving him to.” 

It was the Englishman’s turn to cut. 

“ How’s the play? ” he inquired. 

“ Will you venture all ? ” the highwayman leader returned in a mocking way. 

“ Why should I not ? you have so far afforded me so much hearty entertain- 
ment that I am entirely at your disposal.” 

Don Annibal made a grimace not unlike that when the marvellous shot had 
allowed the last speaker to drop out of the swing of his navaja. 

“ Even in case I risk the whole heap ? ” resumed Matasiete, laying his long 
fingers out on the pillar of gold coin before him. 

“ As your lordship desires, though it is a mistake.” 

“ How so ? ” 

“ Because I am in luck’s way lately,” returned Mr. Gladsden, significantly. 
“ You always lose pitted against me.” 

“ Do you really think that run will last? ” 

“ I am willing to wager on it,” was the reply, in the determined tone of an 
Englishman to whom, indeed, a bet is the ultima ratio. 

“ Caray ! ” exclaimed the arch-bandit, piqued, “your remark decides me, all 
goes on the dos de espadcts , two of spades. Is it a go ? ” 

The Spanish-Americans are fine players, they lose or gain ever so large 
sums without wincing. As the spectators uttered a cry of admiration for him 
who was more or less their lion, Gladsden resolved to prove that he could 
gamble as well as the best of them. 

“ Senyor Don Annibal, you’ll excuse the rest,” he said, impudently, like a 
man who pretty well knew that he had not a friend in the crowd, as he 
presented his adversary, in all senses of the word, with the cards ; “ do you mind 
shuffling them yourself ? ” 

“ What for, senyor? ” holding his hands away. 

“ Oh, it is not merely because I believe you good at shuffling , but because 
things are getting serious, and it is important after all that has taken place 
between us that you should be convinced that I play fair, and that nothing but 
my better fortune thwarts you.” 

Don Stefano turned pale ; several of the guests whispered to one another, 
probably seeing that twenty to one on a ground of their own choosing was 
rather contrary to the character of a blue-blooded Caballero. One of^them 
even lifted up his voice, saying: 

“ He acts like a perfect gentleman.” 

Gladsden bowed to him, though he fully believed he recognised in him the 
suggester on a memorable occasion that the author of the death of the late 
Pepillo Santa Maria should be roasted alive. 

Captain de Luna also bowed, but to his opponent, took the cards, shuffled 
them, and presented them wjth grace. Gladsden laid the cards on the board 
and turning to no one in particular, said: 

“ Do me the honour to cut them, senyor.” 

Some one obeyed the request, and the English player began to deal. A 
death-like stillness reigned at once as by enchantment in the drawing-room so 


The Way layers. 


35 


well peopled. Spite of their villainy, the spectators of the coolness of the 
Englishman alone in the tiger’s lair were impressed by it in his favour, and, 
though the most of them, such as appertained directly to Matasiete’s band, at 
least, would have fallen on him without reluctance on the road back to 
Guaymas, here they registered a vow to let him have a good show of fun for 
his money without interference. 

Don Annibal had staked on the two of spades ; the other sought to produce 
the five of clubs ( cinco de Bastos) to win ; in other words, that card ought to 
come out of the pack to him before his adversary received the one he called to 
appear. But after quite twenty of the parallelograms of pasteboard had been 
thrown on the table one after another, neither of the two cards designated 
had appeared ; but everyone felt they were on the nick. 

At the moment when Gladsden was about to show the face of a card between 
his fingers, the captain of banditti, and of the so-called Chilian cutter, checked 
his action, saying — 

“ Stay half-a-minute, please.” 

What’s your pleasure ? ” 

“ Perhaps to give you one. Did not I hear Don Stefano say something about 
your looking out to buy a pleasure vessel ? ” 

“ I even thought that I might make a yacht of ” 

“ Of the goleta in the port, of the Burlonilla — of my vessel ?” 

“There is no other worth a biscuit, certainly 1 Why the question now ? ” 
inquired the European with some surprise. 

“ I tell you what; if you will consent, I will add the Little Joker , all 
standing, to my pile, against twenty-five thousand dollars. What do you say 
to that proposition ?” 


CHAPTER IX. 

THE WAYLAYERS. 

“ What do I say to that offer ? ” returned Gladsden ; “ that it is a queer one, 
not to say a mad one ! Senyor, I am morally certain that you would lose your 
ship.” 

“ You mean, you refuse,” triumphantly, whilst the auditors smiled flatteringly 
on their leader for having “ bluffed ” the foreigner. • 

“ Oh, no, since you insist on it,” replied the latter, coldly, though he felt 
his heart contract within him ; “ but since I have set out to show I can piay 
cards, I’ll sell you the present turn up for ten thousand ! ” 

“ Don’t ! don’t do anything of the sort ! ” interrupted the host, turning pale. 
“ I’ll give you fifteen thousand for it myself 1 ” 

“ Thank you ; but now, since an outsider has intervened, I must stick to it 

myself.” . , . 

“ You are very right,” remarked Captain Matasiete, with a scowl and an 

angry glance at the banker j “ for it is the right one . ) 


3< 5 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


Gladsden had tossed the card down without looking at it. 

“ Cinco de Basto !” exclaimed all the lookers-on in the one voice. “ Pro- 
digious 1 What a splendid game ! ” 

“You were right, right along, about your luck — at cards /” observed Don 
Annibal, with the most genial smile he could beam with. “ The Little Joker is 
yours.” 

Gladsden had truly won, for there was the requisite card before him. He had 
been inwardly persuaded when he vaunted so boldly that he was bound to lose, 
and had only accepted his mortal enemy’s challenge out of recklessness. The 
emotion he experienced in payment of his false glory was so deep for a couple 
of moments that he was like one stunned, and stared, still, with no possibility to 
get out a word. 

In that brief interval the banker had conferred with the bandit-gambler, and 
to some purpose, moreover, for the latter loudly set to felicitating the English- 
man on his continued good fortune ; and, as at the end of his speech Don 
Stefano put before him the corner of a sheet of paper, on which he had hastily, 
written some lines, he went on to say : 

“ Gaming debts must be settled in four-and-twenty hours. Here is the trans- 
fer of my property in the Chilian goleta, the Little Joker , as she floats at this 
moment, with all she holds, in consideration of the sum of twenty-five thousand 
dollars, which I hereby acknowledge, before all this honourable company, to 
have received !” 

As Gladsden, from the tone and the railing glances of more than one hearer 
of this pretty little presentation speech, conceived no doubt whatever that he 
would never be let set foot on the deck of the Burlonilla, even if he reached 
Guaymas intact, he made no to-do about accepting the paper, and merely fal- 
tered a simple remonstrance at what he had said being taken too seriously. 

“ Oh, don’t be scrupulous,” said Don Stefano, with a kind of pride in his 
friend, “ the sum which our Chilian 'gentleman has lost against you, though 
apparently no joking matter, is nothing to him in reality. I know something 
of his pecuniary standing, and I assure you, if he will pardon the breach of 
banking confidence, that Don Annibal Cristoval de Luna y Almagro y Pizarro 
de Cortes has not suffered the least injury in purse ! ” 

He hardly had the title pat himself, but nobody noticed the error, or cared to 
correct it. 

It was, perhaps, pardonable in the loser, after all the fine words, to be glum, 
but a mournfulness infested the entire assembly, and the few gentlemen whom 
Gladsden charitably looked upon as innocent neighbours, merchants, or 
planters, oozed away gradually. Then the remainder, in more probability the 
allies or sworn adherents of the salteador leader, went forth in a mass. 

The banker offered to house the English guest till morning, and he pretended 
to accept the offer, which had the result of precipitating the farewell of 
Don Annibal, alias Matasiete. Thereupon, alone with Don Stefano, the 
Englishman refused a nightcap of French brandy, and as his servant, a man 
engaged at Guaymas, had entered to receive his orders for the night, he seemed 
suddenly to have gone right round to the other point of the compass, and said 
resolutely, 

“ Ruben, we are going at once back to town. While I come down and wait 
at the gate, bring the mules 1 ” 

Don Stefano began a courteous remonstrance, but the Englishman, after 
having stood undaunted among a score of bandits, was not going to be prevailed 
on by one single opponent. So he smiled knowingly, and replied, 

“I never sleep in the house of a friend, or in a strange bed. I have 


The Way layers. 


& 


infallibly the nightmare — one of those bad sleeps, my dear banker, when a man 
fires off his revolver, and lays about him with the leg of a table so as to 
inflict damages that would make your quickest accountant sit up overnight to 
reckon. Y ou had better let me go.” 

Don Stefano still mumbled something. 

“ Perhaps I shall overtake our dear Don Annibal on the road, and if we do 
meet the chances are that the time will be short for the rest of the way to him, 
for I want to make myself very agreeable to your honourable friend.” 

There was a mighty muster of servants, though it was better than three in the 
morning, at the door, and Gladsden who saw that the two mules were coming 
round in the courtyard, in charge of his faithful man, seriously contemplated 
seizing Don Stefano by the collar and holding him as as a buckler, whilst he 
cowed the domestics with his revolver and rushed for the saddle. But his host 
made no sign, and so the Englishman mounted and rode out into the road 
without any bar. 

He reasoned, therefore, that he would be attacked on the highway by the 
bandits on their return to cut his throat in the villa, since Don Stefano’s 
servitors were above the business. 

Hence he was rather relieved than startled, about an hour before sunrise, when 
he heard a_ couple of gunshots not far ahead of him and his man. The latter 
was so frightened, or so much of an accomplice in the ambush, that he belabored 
his mule, turned and vanished in the darkness, increasing his speed with a shout 
of terror as there rushed after him a horseman who had just passed Gladsden with 
the dizzy rapidity of a meteor, screaming, “ Muerte , hombre — murder ahead man! ” 

Pretty well on the alert, and his eyes quite accustomed to the darkness, to say 
nothing of the night breeze off the sea having blown away the last trace of 
the long stay in the heated room, Gladsden divined that the fugitive had 
been mistaken for himself, and had been fired upon by his own chosen 
assassins. « 

There was a clump of trees ahead, from around which the fleeing cavalier had 
come. On the instant, Gladsden imagined a trick. He flung himself off his 
mule, to whose flank he applied a stroke of his whip, which started it off not 
leisurely, and lay down, half across the road. He had his revolver ready in his 
hand. There was a yellow stripe in his riding cloak, which made him tolerably 
distinguishable in the gloom. 

Waylayers have good eyes. Two men, advancing on foot, speedily spied this 
stumbling-block, and were so flattered by that evidence, as they conceived it, to 
the goodness of their aim, that they forbore to delay to re-charge their guns 
which they carried easily “ at the trail.” One of them was more eager than the 
other to examine the prey, and threw himself before the second. Gladsden 
judged this an excellent opportunity to kill two birds with one bullet, on the 
expectation of the missile perforating the foremost and then burying itself in his 
comrade. He waited only long enough to see his teeth gleaming in a savage 
and gleeful smile, and pulled the trigger. 

The robber uttered a scream of pain and surprise, and fell back upon his mate, 
who instinctively pushed him aside, so that he measured his length in the deep 
water-cart furrows. The other, paralysed with fear, was not at all disenchanted by 
seeing the supposed victim of their double shots rise and present the revolver 
of which one chamber had furnished a quietus to his friend, whilst he said- 
having seen the man’s face in the flash — 

“ Good morning, Master Ignazio, otherwise the lieutenant of our dear 
acquaintance, Don String of names, chief of the bandoleros, and skipper of the 
Little Joker* If .you will just give me the address of your sister, so that I can 


38 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


deliver your last dying message, and that of your dear brother, Pepillo, I shall 
require nothing further before I rid me of your company ! ” 

Ignazio gave a howl of rage which exemplified the reason for his nickname 
of “the Mountain Cat,” at facing the avowed witness of his brother’s decease, 
the probable slayer, but the revolver daunted him, and the allusion to his sister 
riveted him to the spot, so that he did not budge, even so much as an eye, to 
look at his companion who gave a last groan in the rut. 

As Mr. Gladsden had no notion of ever again bestowing so much of his time on 
this nocturnal cavalier, he now designed to inform him about the inheritance of 
his brother bandit. With a quick transition of feeling, the hearer ejaculated a. 
prayer, luckily short, and springing on the speaker dragged him into the thicket 
at the roadside. 

“ Oh, gentleman !” he cried, “you must not be seen by the others. They 
line the road to the town. You will surelylbe killed even running the gauntlet, 
though we believed you would be stifled in your own bedroom at Don Stefajios, 
but you shall not be harmed now ! I swear it! ” he added vehemently. “ You 
are under the charge of the Saints ; your escape from our bullets showed that ! ’’ 

Gladsden did not trouble just then to undeceive him in his conceit about the 
horseman who had drawn the fire of the ambuscade. 

“ Come ! you are not so bad a fellow, I grant ! ” 

“ And you are a brave heart, senyor. I watched you close while you played the 
captain disguised.” 

“ Oh, were you there ? Now well, I won’t say fraternal love would make you 
help me, but there is a prospect of a bushel of pearls, for your sister, the orphans, 
and yourself, and, in faith — as you would say — I honestly believe you had better 
be my safe guide to the port ! What say you ? ” 

“ It’s a bargain, senyor. Besides ” (here he could not help laughing 

heartily, though in a low tone) “ with me you can trick that humbug, the 
captain, lovely ! ” 

“In what way ! Will he not burst with vexation if I slip past his dogs unhurt ? ’’ 

“ He will with disappointment when you sail away in the Burlonilla .” 

“ I believe that.” 

“ And that you may do, with my help, if we are on the alert ! I am the chief 
officer of that barque.” 

“ Which is no more Chilian than you are an honest man.” 

“ Pardon me, senyor ! I am honest on occasion, and I will deliver you up 
the ship if I may still retain my post aboard.” 

“ It strikes me, man, that it is you who are making conditions.” 

But the Englishman, who realised all the danger of his situation, had not 
used an angry tone. The bold and merry rogue accordingly pro needed. 

“ Caramba ! what is there strange in that ? I save your life ; you safeguard 
my neck ! Besides, on land, here, I am not afraid of our judges ; but on the 
sea, if the American naval officers catch us, I have always counted it as certain 
that I should hang ! ” 

“ I am with you there ! ” 

“Let me go with you, there, senyor ! I will not only pilot you to the town, 
but do so on the cutter, and take you to the pearl-store, surely, steadfastly, under 
your honour’s direction ! ” 

“ Your cool impudence is much to my taste. See, day is peeping. Lead on ! 
and if we reach the town without having to burn powder or take the edge off 
a w n o 6 ’ > y ° U haVC excellent h?P e s of being my lieutenant on the cocky little craft.” 

She s a beauty ! But, silence 1 they come, and will tread on poor Ricardo ■ 
so, away 1 ” 


CHAPTER X. 


THE PEARL-DIVER’S PRICE. 

However placid our adventurous Englishman might seem to be, he was a man, 
like another, to be dazzled by the play of his fancy, rendering almost palpable 
to his mind all the jewelled dreams of The Arabian Nights, where pearls and 
other sea gems play so brilliant a part, and are measured out in bushels by the 
heroes of those prodigious tales. 

Now that he owned a fleet vessel, nothing seemed easier than to realise all 
these visions, and to succeed in obtaining the treasure indicated by Pepillo, so 
that, like another Aladdin, his fortune would enable him to eclipse even the 
dons of the European stock exchanges. 

The first thing had been to obtain indisputable command of the ship. So he 
went to the port governor, a military man, who was incorruptible, and would, 
he could see, stand no nonsense from the robber-chief and his more or less 
public allies : Colonel Fontoro stamped the transfer-paper of the late owner of 
the Burlonilla , and authorised Captain Gladsden to defend his property against 
all illegal claimants. 

There were a score of American or English sailors knocking about at the port. 
Gladsden selected eight, added a North American negro as a colour line, a 
Chinaman for cook, a Kanack to help in the diving, and a Valparaisan boy for 
the cabin. Ignazio he allowed to be his lieutenant “ on trial,” but protected 
himself by giving the second mate, Jem Holdfast, a Bristol man, a sealed order 
to take command in event of his absence for twenty-four hours without notice, 
or the American acting suspiciously. 

There was a lack of the most important desideratum in his peculiar quest, 
pearl-divers ; Ignazio did not pretend to be expert, like his brother-in-law had 
been, spite of over-much assurance in most pretensions, and the Kanack was 
doubtful. 

As those waters were wont to have furnished a bountiful harvest of pearls to 
Spain — up to 1530 from the conquest, a million of dollars worth had been sent 
home officially, heaven only knowing what supplement the tyrants had smuggled 
to the Jews of Barcelona, Cadiz, Lisbon, and Oporto — Gladsden cherished the 
hope that he would pick up, some Indian, versed by innate inheritance, skilful 
and strong, if not any too honest. Though the pearl-fishery on the West Coast 
was practically exhausted in the seventeenth century, still a few essay it “ for 
their own hand.” It is not impossible that notable pearls are still picked up, and 
secretly disposed of, as only the other day (1883, to be exact) one was found in 
the Bay of Panama, so large as to rank among the few celebrated gems of 
historical note. 

The search for a diver was fruitless to Gladsden. The Indians, no doubt, 
scented a little coolie-catching in the wind, where so rakish a vessel was con- 
cerned, and had no inclination to be carried to Ceylon and set to work at 
coffee planting during an engagement of 99 years. 

Besides, with so ugly an enemy, the captain of bandleros hatching a scheme 
to recover his property, with which Don Jorge Federico was more and more 
delighted, so that he wondered it had ever been valued at only twenty thousand 
dollars, he ought already to have sailed. He determined to weigh, therefore, 
spite of his unsupplied want, obeying the rude alternative. 


4 ° 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


On the eve, while the men were putting the finishing touches to the sea-going 
trim, while Captain Gladsden was in the cabin, lolling back in a Windsor 
(Connecticut) chair, smoking and seeing Gladsden Hall rising in a vast estate of 
new purchase like ChatsWorth itself, the South American page came to the 
doorsill, and announced the arrival alongside of a strange gentleman, with the 
last provisions of fresh vegetables and water. 

Gladsden was in no good humour at the interruption, especially as he con- 
jectured that the new comer was an emissary of the ex-skipper of the pretty 
cotter. He was, therefore, about to rejoin that the cabin boy and the uninvited 
caller might go to Hades in company, when the party mentioned, probably of 
an impatient temperament, or too pressed by the urgency of his case to stand 
on ceremony, caught the boy by the waist-belt, tossed him aside, and, leap- 
ing into the cabin, said as easily as one could imagine and with a winning 
smile : — 

“ Be good enough to overlook the manner of my arrival, sir captain, but I 
must speak with you.” 

Without any invitation he sat himself down on a locker, and pulling out 
tobacco and paper from his sash at the waist, proceeded to roll up a cigarette. 

Rather taken aback by this abrupt intrusion, the Englishman took a long 
stare at the speaker, who did not show in the least that the attention was 
burdensome. Then he smiled, with a reflection which he did not care just 
then to express. When the cigarette was made and lit, the stranger, half 
hiding his handsome young face in a cloud of smoke, leant towards his 
compulsory host with a somewhat mocking air, and began : — 

“ Senyor capitano, I am of the opinion that, though you should reckon me 
up by the hour together in the comprehensive style you are doing, that would 
in no way enlighten you as to who I am.” 

“ That is just where you are out, my friend,” returned Gladsden, with some 
triumph. “ It is I who know more about you than you do of me, or rather it is 
you who are more in my debt than ever I hope I shall be in yours.” 

It was (the turn for the young Mexican to evince surprise, but he bore the 
shock very well.- 

“ There is' afi 6FWX, sir,” he responded, after reflecting, whilst he regarded 
the frank, hardy features over against him, repaying his mocking air with a 
derisive expression which was full of fun, though. “ I have never seen you 
before.” 

“ That is true, perhaps. At the time when we were face to face there was 
the ugly head of a red Indian thrust between, a head, by the way, in which I 
lodged a bullet, thanks to which your hair remains on yours.” 

“ Oh ! ” exclaimed Benito Bustamente, in a gush of joy and amazement. 
“ Was it you whose shot rang in my ear like the voice of a delivering archangel* 
when that murderous savage’s knife was hovering over my heart in order to 
precipitate the death which his envenomed darts had failed to inflict ? How 
can I thank you ? ” 

He sprang forward, let the cigar fly from his fine teeth, and seizing the 
Englishman’s hand, carried it effusively to his lips. 

“ Well, there, have done, do stop it, my good fellow ! ” said the other, embar- 
rassed, “lam heartily glad I saved the life of so graceful a Caballero, and more, I 
cannot say now, particularly, if your present errand has anything to do with 
the occurrence which culminated in placing you, mighty pale and ‘ gone ’look- 
ing, at the mercy of that scalping fiend.” 

“ Something to do with it? all, all ! ” cried Benito. 

They exchanged stories. When the Mexican explained how his despair had 


The Pearl Diver’s Price , 


4 * 


goaded him into taking up the trail of Dolores, though ill-fitted to combat a 
horde of ruffians, the Englishman stayed him. 

“ I was on the same track,” said he, “ how singular ! we might have fallen foul 
of one another, and had a pretty mincing and slashing duet in the thicket, that 
stormy night. Well, such a fatal blunder was not in the books.” 

“ Thank heaven ! To proceed,” went on Benito; “I found Dolores sheltered 
from the rain in a hollow tree. She was like the dead, speechless, inflexible, 
cold ; but fortunately I carried the means of resuscitating her. When she had 
been so revivified, I left her to await my return with the steed I proposed 
stealing from a frightened herd which could be seen by the lightning glare 
around the base of that Mound Tower. The robbers were within the pile, I 
could move bodily ; to my amazement, I spied, on looking up, a man suspended 
as by a thread from the top of the cylinder of brick. There, in another part, I 
recognised another visage, hideous, demoniacally grinning, hovering over this 
doomed wretch. A knife soon glittered in the hand of the cruel scoundrel. 1 
knew the peculiar profile, the thin lips, the chin and hook-nose nearly meeting. 
It was Don Annibal Cristoval de Luna, as he called himself, the visitor at Don 
Jose’s, suspected then to be affiliated to the salteador. I hesitated not a moment, 
I could not stay your fall, senyor, but I was bound to revenge it, I fired with the 
untried gun, which handsomely did its work, and the scream of Don Annibal, 
whose beauty I had marred, was my reward and an alarm to his gang. But I 
had time to select a horse, stampede the others, gallop to Dolores’ refuge, place 
her on the saddle-bow, and flee round the terrified animals over the piairie. 
When our flight became slower by fatigue, I lassoed a second horse for Dolores, 
and we two rode easily on to Guaymas.” 

“ Whilst I was carried away, heaven knows how far, luckily I fell in with a 
couple of decent fellows, professional protectors of the cattle from vermin, and 
they conducted me to the post, also whither they were bearing their pelts. What 
a strange meeting ! So your idea of humanity was to shoot close to the ear of 
a man suspended fifty feet on high, so as to startle him into the drop ! ” laughing. 
“ Well, shake hands again,” continued Gladsden, extending his hand. 

“ But you are alive ? ” 

“ I agree with you there. But if I had not fallen on something so soft as 1 
couple of horses, one of which obligingly bolted and took me out of the 
camp, I should have been a pancake. All this thanks to your humanity b ” 

Benito hardly understood this kind of jesting ; but the ways of the Anglo- 
Saxon are often incomprehensible to the Southern American, and he did not 
stop to require an elucidation. 

“ We are quits, then ; that is manifest ! ” said he. 

“ Which means we are both, with the very natural proneness of each man, to 
overrate his vital value infinitely, under ceaseless obligation to one another. 
What can I do for you ? ” 

“ Captain, you have been beating up Guaymas for a pearl-fisher — a diver of 
the rare old sort, who could go deeper and stay under longer than the degene- 
rate descendants of that almost forgotten man-fish Miguelillo, of Tehuantepec, 
who, in 1620 or so, dived an incredible number of fathoms, and brought up the 
‘ Queen of the Gulf,’ which precious pearl, worthy of being called a ‘ Cleopa- 
trina,’ and dissolved in an Imperators cup, was, up to a few years ago the 
largest gem in the coronet of Our Lady in Saragossa Cathedral ! ” 

“ My learned friend, I want a diver, indeed. Only I mean to fish in oulk 
that is, draw up at one scoop a mass of pearls ! ” 

“ Did you never hear the men about the port mention one Benito Vasquez, of 
the Upper Gulf ? ” went on the Mexican, without reference to this announcement, 


42 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


“ Well, several did say that the person you name was the very man I was 
feeling for. But no one had seen him for some time back.” 

“ Benito Vasquez is Benito de Bustamente ! Fond of the seas, acquainted 
with an old Indian, one of the many who assert a descent from the early kings, 
I know almost every inch of water, far below the surface, too, from the mouth 
of the Gila to Cape Palmo. I am that diver ! ” 

“ Famous diver,” said Gladsden. “ My dear fellow, you will make my 
expedition a short and surely successful one. You are the very man I want. I 
won’t say now, engage with me at a sum ; but come, point out the spot I seek, 
help me to drag up the sunken treasure, and as I live, I shall turn my head 
whilst you dip with your cap into the chest.” 

“ Are you speaking seriously, captain ?” demanded Benito, not surprised at the 
sudden friendship he had excited, that not being an unexampled event. 

“ Most seriously.” 

“ Then our bargain is made. The conditions lie thus : ask me whatsoever you 
will, my Englishman, and I will do my best to gratify it. On your part, let me 
be accompanied on the voyage by my wife, Donna Dolores de Miranda.” 

“ Is that all ! Delighted to turn myself out of my cabin for the young lady.” 

“ Afterwards you will land me and her where I indicate.” 

“ Right, but about your remuneration?” 

“ Not a seed of a pearl. I shall consider myself sufficiently rewarded if 
you loyally keep this arrangement, on which depends the happiness of all my 
life.” 

“ Senyor Benito Vasquez de Bustamente,” said Gladsden, rising and gravely 
holding out his hand. “ I read in some old newspaper which beguiled the 
dreary watch, that your father, in resigning the Presidency of these Mexican 
States, said : He retired with nothing but his family, whom he would rear to be 
like himself, content with the grand but simple ambition to be good Mexicans. 
You are worthy your father, who must have been a fine gentleman ! and I tell 
you, one such Mexican suffices to make me reckon very little in the opposing 
balance a thousand mongrels like that Don Annibal, the robber chief, and his 
citizen allies. Bring the young lady aboard — she shall be the Queen of the Sea 
here, my very sister ! ” 

“ By my soul! ” cried the young Mexican : “you have a gallant heart, and I 
anticipated little less from a seaman and an Englishman ! So, the lady is along- 
side at this very moment, in the dugout that I paddled out in, awaiting the result 
of my pleading.” 

“ Enough, the young lady shall have a state-room, and even a sitting-room 
apart, for the carpenter can soon knock up a partition here. No one but you 
and I, if I may be considered a guest now and then, may enter there, and 1 never 
without you. It is needless to say that Madam Bustamente shall be treated on 
my ship with all the respectful consideration which is her due.” 

“ Then the sooner we are off soundings the better. Both of us have active 
enemies ashore.” 

“ Not while my flag covers you. The fiery flag of England is one that 
grasping fingers have been burnt again afore now, senyor. Now let’s bless the 
ship with the presence within her bulwarks of your life companion, let’s have 
her here.” 

Benito shook the generous foreigner’s hand cordially, ran up the companion- 
way and vanished for a short moment, after which he returned, preceding 
Dolores. She had even sooner and more completely than her young mate 
recovered from the privations of the desert, and grief at the loss of her only 
parent. Her beauty was exhilarating, and Gladsden was really enchanted at her 


The Two Captains oj the “Goleta." 


43 


salutation, so fraught with modesty and grace. Her soft, harmonious voice 
fluttered faintly in her answer to his welcoming address, but she was soon 
encouraged to the top of her heart, and even laughed at having been fearful up 
to then. 6 * 

To think they were in some sort old friends ; that this indolent captain had 
been on the trail of her abductor, and had besides visited with condign punish- 
ment the assassin of her father. It was as good as her brightest dreams. 


CHAPTER XI. 

THE TWO CAPTAINS OF THE “ GOLETA.” 

Whilst Senyora Bustamente was formally taking some refreshment, Gladsden 
summoned Ignazio. 

“ Lieutenant,” said he, sternly, “ it is a honour for me to have Madam Vasquez, 
the bride of Benito Vasquez, the pearl-diver, to present to you.” 

Ignazio bowed, and darted from his widely-distended eyes an enormous show 
of admiration at the young Mexican. 

“ The famous pearl-fisher,” murmured he ; “ the take will be rare and splendid 

SlOW. 5 * 

“ This lady,” continued the master, “ is our passenger, you are answerable 
for her being treated with the utmost deference, and the greatest attention by all 
the crew. We’ll fashion a cabin for her hereabouts, All the men are forbidden 
to enter here under any pretence whatever. Do’ye hear, Master Ignazio r ? 

“ Yes.” 

“ Then what the mischief are you staring for ? ” 

“ Ha, Senyora Vasquez ? ” he repeated. “ Surely I behold with admiration- 
dazed eyes the incomparable daughter of the martial haciendero, Don Jose de 
Miranda.” 

“ Eh ! how now, what do you know of the lady ? ” 

“ Only that she was the chosen bride of his excellency, Don Annibal 
Cristoval.” 

“ Eh P why, of course ! ” 

“ And that illustrious scoundrel,” went on the late lieutenant of banditti, with 
a refreshing air of morality, “after having had the poor don tracked to his death 
by the venomous Apache, to whom I owe my brother’s loss — one to him ! a 
thousand devils pull at him — the captain not my lamented Pepillo — after all that 
show of hatred to him who took the lady out of his clutches, Don Annibal will 
not allow the double removal unimpeded, I’ll wager you a thousand ounces 
against one poor, old, worn dollar, of the senyorita and his dear Burlonilla.” 

" “ Indeed ! we’ll see about that.” 

The speaker marked a curious mixture of fear and doubt flit across the visage 
of Ignazio. 

Benito, seeing that he was only in the way of his young wife’s settling down 


44 


The Treasure of Pearls , 


in her new home, and having some neglected preparations to make ashore* 
proposed a hasty return thither. 

The captain all the less reluctantly coincided with his expressed intention, as 
he had a confidential message to transmit to the British vice-consul — a young 
Jewish gentleman on whom he believed he could rely in such an emergency as 
impended. 

In Benito’s absence, Captain Gladsden took further precautions. Disliking a 
budding smile on the phiz of Ignazio, he ordered him below, placing Bristol Jem 
at the head of affairs in his stead, and charged the carpenter to hurry on his 
woodwork. The rest of the time was given up to completing the readiness 
to start. 

Going on 3 p.m. the Englishman was walking the deck under an umbrella, 
when he perceived a boat pushing off from the wharf. It could not be Benito, 
in this huge shallow punt, impelled by eight oars, in the bow of which six armed 
men in uniform were standing, while at the stern were seated two persons in 
gay array. 

One was a stout dame, extravagantly caparisoned ; the other, a tall man in 
almost as brilliant and absurd an attire. The latter was not altogether unfa- 
miliar to the captain, and he smiled in anticipation of the affair to be commu- 
nicated. 

Whilst the heavily laden embarcation bore down upon the cutter with a leisure 
which was insulting, Gladsden ordered his ensign to be dipped three times. 
Immediately he had the satisfaction of perceiving the flag of the British consul 
execute the same movement. Benito had, therefore, delivered his message, to 
which this courtesy was an acknowledgment. 

Gladsden went below, and approaching the bulkhead, behind which Donna 
Dolores was esconced, whispered to her, 

“ Lady ! I have reason to suppose that a boat is coming hither with persons 
on board whose intention is to seize on you and take you to land in the absence 
of your husband. Now, you need not worry yourself. Don’t show any tokens 
of being here. I have answered for your protection to Don Benito, and I know 
quite how to take care of you, as well as my craft, against all the desperadoes in 
the Intendencia of all Sonora.” 

“ Oh, do so, sir ! ” returned the young lady, a prey to deep emotion, spite of 
the Englishman’s confident and jesting accent, “ and we shall bless you ! Out 
of the little window I, too, have espied the skiff coming ; and I have recognised 
my aunt and the pretender to my hand. I would rather die than fall into their 
hands ! Oh, why — oh, why is not Benito here ? ” 

“ Don’t be under any uneasiness,” reiterated the other ; “ I shall keep my 
pledge to your husband. Only, I say again, keep perdu , and do not reveal youi 
presence by any noise.” 

“ 1 promise to obey you, sir captain. You are a really good man ! Heaven 
will benefit you for the protection you accord me. I shall go on praying for you 
and myself ! ” 

“ Very well ; so pluck up, senyorita, and soon the fun will be over !” 

He remcunted to the deck. He glanced over the bay, and went to the stern 
with his marine glass, looking over the oncoming “ scow ” contemptuously to 
view the shore near the consul’s habitation. A longboat, manned by twelve 
oarsmen, and carrying the English flag at the stern, was seen to quit the pier and 
steer for the Burlonilla, making good time. 

The port was “ getting lively.” 

Though things were going on nicely enough, Gladsden did not mean to be 
taken unawares, and, not to be blamed for neglecting to take any precaution, he 


The Two Captains of the “ Goletaf 


45 


had a cutlass and a brace of boarding pistols laid handily on the sliding cover of 
the companion-way. In those waters one never knows how matters may turn 
out, and, to prevent the turning out being unpleasant, a man is easiest when 
thoroughly on his guard. 

Though the English representative’s boat had left the shore some time after 
the native one, it was not slow in overhauling it, outstripping it without deigning 
to hail it or otherwise notice it, and ran alongside the Little Joker on the sea- 
ward side, while the other boat was rather far away. 

“ Glad to see you, Mr. Lyons,” said Gladsden, receiving the Deputy-Consul, 
warmly. 

“Yes, here I am, captain. You can do anything you like with me, you know. 
Only, as your messenger was in a hurry to be off, I am very little informed upon 
passing matters, and I may be able to act better in your interest if you acquaint 
me how things stand and move.” 

Gladsden briefly told the story. 

“ Is that all 1 ” exclaimed Deputy-consul Lyons, laughing finely, as Jews do. 
tl Don’t you be alarmed, but let me deal with this fellow. The friend of Don 
Stefano must be a suspicious character, and that he is the chief of the in-country 
night marchers, and also the doer of little piracies with this same brigantine 
does not, therefore, startle me. But your visitors are hailing you. You might 
receive them with that bulldog sweetness of demeanour which characterise us 
British,” he went on, smiling shyly. “ Before all, put away those weapons, 
quite useless. The affair will finish with more of a display of brass than steel 
or lead.” 

“ I will hope so, though it’s a thing of indifference,” replied the master of 
the Little Joker. “ Any way, I rely on you.” 

“ That’s the best.” 

So the cabin boy removed the weapons, while his captain, accompanied by 
the British sub-consul, strode to the gangway thrown open in the low waist, 
arriving just in time to offer his hand to the lady-passenger of the shallop. 
Behind her the drolly accoutred sham Chilian commodore scrambled aboard. 

Donna Josefa de Miranda was of elephantine form, with her hair, neck, ears, 
and arms literally laden with gems, gold eagles, and Mexican coins, pierced 
and strung in the shape of collars and bracelets. A thousand dollar China 
crape shawl showed all its florid pattern in embroidery, spread on her broad 
shoulder. A figured muslin dress, much too short, was caught in at what she 
probably flattered herself was a waist, by a sash sprinkled with precious stones. 
A profusion of costly rings shone on her gloved hands. It was manifest that 
Don Jose de Miranda in his flight had left some valuables which his kins- 
woman had forestalled the executors in securing. 

Nothing could be more repulsive in its unccrmeliness than the swarthy linea- 
ments of this corpulent being, whose carping physiognomy and small glistening 
coffee-coloured eyes wore an expression of indescribable spitefulness. 

Close to her escort, Captain Gladsden undoubtedly recognised the scarred 
hook nose, hatchet face, and lank figure of his gambling opponent. It was the 
same grotesque uniform which had been donned to astonish the natives at the 
supper table of Don Stefano. 

When this precious pair came in upon the deck of the Little Joker , the 
armed men attempted to follow. But Mr. Holdfast — whose enforced stay in 
the fort, penniless, scornfully used by the Guaymasians, had filled him with 
terrible detestation of all Mexicans in general, and Western ones in particular — 
gleefully obeyed his orders by bidding them keep their distance. At once the 
corporal seemed indisposed to bow to this injunction, and seized the turkshead 


46 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


at the end of the rope-guard of the gang-plank, thus railed to assist the lady ; 
the first officer, without losing an atom of his habitual coolness, shoved the 
skiff head off so roughly with his foot as to make the soldier lose his balance 
and fall between the two gunnels into the water. This, to the laughter of the 
seamen, who cherish an animosity towards soldiers, and, furthermore, against 
the armed police, always seeking an excuse to be manifested. Luckily, the 
soldier had kept his hold of the main ropes, and hung long enough to be lifted 
up into the boat to the disapproval, if a certain splash of a tail in the water not 
remote, signified anything, of a shark which had immediately prepared to sup 
on him instead of the cook’s waste. 

Meanwhile, without deigning to attach the least interest to this suggestive 
episode, the massive dame, givingthe new master of the brigantine a lofty look, 
used her most cutting tone to demand, haughtily, if she were addressing the 
commander of the bark. 

“ Yes, madam,” replied Gladsden, bowing stiffly, “for which recent coming 
into possession I am happy, because it procures me the honour of receiving on 
my deck as weighty a personage as your ladyship appears to be. To whom have 
I the favour of speaking ?” 

The proud woman announced herself, sonorously, as “ Donna Maria Josefa 
Dolores Miranda y Pedrosa y Saltabadil de la Cruz de Carbaneillo y Medusa.” 
The hearer bowed deeply at each bead on the string, darting a look aslant as if 
he feared the little brigantine was rather top-heavy with all these names. Then 
she pointed to her companion, who had been eyeing the ship’s new crew with 
an annoyed face which was diverting enough to any one in the secret of his 
interest, like an exhibition of a curious wild beast. 

“ This is — for you need save yourself the trouble to name an old acquaintance 
— Don Annibal Cristoval de Luna y Pizarro Almagro de Cortes,” took up the 
gibing captain, with a wink for the consulary assistant. “ It is rather crushing, 
besides, your ladyship, to have here a descendant of three of the conquerors.” 

Don Annibal was curling his moustache to keep his countenance. His native 
impudence was oosing out at every pore. 

“ This gentleman,” proceeded the important lady, “ is my son-in-law, hence 
his accompanying me.” 

“ Your daughter must be a happy woman to be the mate of so brilliant an 
officer, an admiral, at least, I suppose ? ” 

“ Well, the alliance will not come off for a little spell, within these four-and- 
twenty hours, sir. To conduce to that beneficent result, you see me here.” 

“ I am fully aware, senyorita,” returned Gladsden, gettingtired of keeping up 
the chaff, “ that I would never have boasted the possession of this craft but for 
Don Annibal, but, in compensation, I hardly believe he comes to me to be 
furnished with a wife, unfortunately, unless it be the gunner' s daughter , to 
which alliance he is heartily welcome to my consent. I am afraid he will go away 
a bachelor for all the marriageable young ladies here.” 

It is lamentable to record that the sailors, who had been bandying verbal 
bonbons with the soldiers, chafing on the shallop, raised a laugh at the expense 
of Don Annibal, who perfectly well understood, in his other part of pirate, that 
to marry the gunner’s daughter, is to be bound, face down, on a cannon and 
there undergo a flogging. So he drew himself up with a savage gleam in the 
eyes : 

“ Mind what you say, or I will have you to know that I am very rich, and 
otherwise of good position. It will be easy for me to make you repent any 
insolence to me or my friend. So, take my caution for it, you had better be 
respectful, and not forget whom you are addressing.” 


The Rout Complete . 


47 


Gladsden slapped the Panama on his head which he had so far held in hand. 

“ If it comes to that, ma’am,” he said, “you must allow me to remark, with all 
the respect that you claim, and which I will show you inasmuch as you are of the 
gentle sex, and for that reason solely, that you are labouring under an error. 
You don’t seem fairly to know whom you are talking to 1 I am the captain and 
owner of this goleta, and, moreover, 1 am a foreigner. My deck is the same 
thing as a piece of the country under the colours of which I sail. However grand 
you may be over there, on land, your power falls pretty flat on these planks. I 
have the honour to present to you the deputy of Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul 
who will bear me out in my observation.” 


CHAPTER XII. 

THE ROUT COMPLETE. 

At this declaration of the modern “ Ego civis Romanus ,” Captain Matasiete 
rather stepped behind the woman than otherwise, as a wary warrior chooses a 
cotton-bale for breastwork when bullets are likely to fly. 

“ Tut, tut, tut ! what is all this farrago to me ? In plain words, I come for my 
daughter whom you took off shore and have on this, I am afraid, piratical 
craft. I summon you to restore my child straightway, or I’ll give you a tough 
bird to pick ! ” 

Gladsden impudently looked from her to the salteador and then back again, 
as if he were in doubt which was “ the old bird ” she offered for plucking. 

“ And you will have me to deal with my fresh hand at ship-ruling, senyor,” 
cried Don Annibal at last, having edged over to the gangway, and seeing the 
skiff drawn near enough for the soldiers, eager for the fray under the taunts of 
the seamen, to haply clamber on board to his aid. 

The boatmen, whom he knew something of, and who might have numbered 
more than one of the former crew of the Little Joker , could be relied on to back 
up the musketeers, he believed. 

“ My young captain, if you play the resistant, hang me if I shall not bring 
you to reason and decorate a shark’s tooth with fragments of your hide 1 Even 
yet, you do not know of what I am capable 1 Rayo de Dios. Mind yourself ! 
Patience is not one of my virtues ! ” 

The consul intimated to Gladsden that there was no necessity of an outbreak 
of temper, as, while the brigantine’s crew could lay out the soldiers comfortably 
in a twinkling, his own boat’s crew could eat up the skiff’s propelling force 
without salt. 

“ Will you answer me, sir,” resumed the stout lady. 

“ Senyorita,” Gladsden responded, with all the self-possession possible, “ I do 
not know what you are driving at. I have nothing to do with your bucket of 
tar — I mean your family affairs, and I do not want to dip into it. If your 
kinswoman has left your agreeable society, I daresay she had her grounds of 


+8 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


action. It is no look out of mine, and I shall keep my fingers clear of it, I tell 
you. Whether you go around rummaging for her or not, I shall pay no heed, 
so long as you do not flounce about my ship, hardly of your burthen for such 
carasolling, telling me your troubles. As for this gentleman,” he went on, 
spinning round so fiercely on Master Matasiete, with the new log-line of 
nominatives, I warn him charitably that if he does not stick his long cabbage- 
cutter between his legs and scuttle off instanter, I will hurl him, his names and 
titles, his long nose and long moustache, clean over the side to regale the har- 
bour scavenger. This little programme being clearly laid down, I rather think 
you twain had better drop back into your boat.” 

He thereupon turned his back on my lady as if to give his men the order. 
She retreated a step, but, turning as red in the gills as a turkey-cock, 
blurted out — 

“Stay, stay, master captain. You shall not slide out of it thus. I have an 
order of the secretary of the colonel governor to take my dear child back from 
any place whatever.” 

“ Suppose you are good enough to let me inspect this warrant, madam ?” said 
Mr. Lyons, quietly. 

“I have no objections. You are not a boor. Your residence here has 
civilised you. Is it not perfectly in order r ” 

“Beautifully inscribed, madam,” replied the Pro-Consul; “only that writ 
does not run here !” 

“ Why not, pray?” she exclaimed, haughtily, bridling up at the implied slight 
to Mexico. 

“ Simply because the Port Governor himself has no right to issue search- 
warrants for foreign vessels, even though the application is backed up by so 
noted a banker as Don Stefano Garcia. In the first place, your complaint ought 
to have been laid before me — from the moment an Englishman is accused^ I 
would have then opened an inquiry, and if it appeared proper that the British 
shipping in port should be examined I would have so advised Colonel Fontoro, 
and my chancellor would have been charged to accompany you in the investi- 
gation. I do not say that, on account of the somewhat slow movements of that 
peculiar creature, the ‘ red tape worm,’ ” he added, smiling softly, “all these 
indispensable regulations would not have tried your ladyship’s patience, but, I 
believe, our office is credited with more celerity than your own government 
houses. At all events, as the forms have been ignored, this order has no value. 

I also think you had better retire, for this captain, as he notified you very 
kindly, has the right to tumble you neck and crop over the board, and what 
little I know of him makes it certain that he will not hesitate to carry out 
his warning if either of you continue obstinately to stay here contrary to his 
will ! ” 


It is impossible to depict the rage which swayed the stout woman as she 
heard this speech, in a firm voice and peremptory tone. She flew out against 
the speaker, the captain and all the grinning crew, to the Chinese cook and 
cabin boy themselves, with all the strongest insults and threats in her resonant 
Castilian tongue, to which had been added the native additions not found in 
dictionaries of the Spanish Academy, which glanced off blunted from the frigid 
Englishman, however. & 

The prudent captain of salteadors and pirates, as the case might be, took care 
not to intervene while under Don Jorge Federico’s eye. His own wandered after 
he had secured an open way to retreat, and he managed, unseen by the others 
to exchange a glance with Ignazio, whose head just peeped up out of the fore- 
hatch, where he was ensconced. 


The Rout Complete, 


“ This is all very well,” cried the enormous virago at las*t, “ I do withdraw 
because you are all in the plot against me, and I have no power, poor little weak 
woman {, afeniquita ) that I am to enforce my rights ! But I’ll spend half my 
fortune to punish this outrage. Oh, that the guns of the island would blow 
you over the little stars if you seek to escape me. We shall meet again, you 
puppy ; come, Don Annibal Cristoval de Luna y Pizarro y Amalgro de Cortes, 
iollow me. I have taken a vow that you shall be my son-in-law ; and you shall 
wear that title though it cost me my own name.” 

“ You are not likely to lose yours by marriage,” observed Mr. Gladsden, 
accompanying her to the side opening. “ At least, I’ll back that opinion 
roundly.” 

“ Vulgar buffoon ! she exclaimed, shrugging her shoulders till her jewels 
jingled like a head-mule’s bells. “ Come, dear Don Annibal ; let us leave this 
Indian canoe. I repeat that you shall be the husband of my daughter.” 

The Mexican had stepped into the boat, spite of the rule to give place to the 
dame, and omitted to offer his hand, as a fresh arrival shocked his sight. It 
was Benito Vasquez Bustamente, coming off with his baggage in a shore boat, 
managed by a couple of Indians, one young enough to be the grandchild of the 
other. Both had those bloodshot eyes which are the living tokens of a life as a 
pearl diver. 

“ You may bestow your daughter on whom you like,” interposed the young- 
Mexican, at one spring impatiently clearing the shallop and the ducking heads 
of the startled soldiers, and alighting between the robber-captain and that of the 
Burlonilla , who seemed about to step into the flat boat and cuff the Mexican 
even there. “ But Donna Dolores is only your niece, and you lie after the most 
shameful pattern when you pretend to the honour of being her mother.” 

This unexpected address so dumbfounded the huge senyora, that she almost fell 
back upon the soldier, and would have done so only that the prick of a bayonet, 
“ peaking up,” broke into her absence of mind, due to the consternation. 

Amid a roar of laughter as she floundered upon the nearly crushed soldier, 
trying to right her upon her feet, the shallop was pushed off, and the In Hans of 
Benito aiding the movement and from it glancing to the brigantine’s side, their 
little boat took its place, and began to discharge the baggage which the pearl 
diver had collected to make his wife’s voyage more comfortable. 

A little while after the Deputy-Consul, thanked warmly by all parties con- 
cerned, entered his longboat, and was rapidly transported to land, even before 
the infuriated Don Annibal and the lady whom he had so feebly cavaliered 
arrived at the pier side. It seemed to him, as he glanced amusedly into it, that 
a strange face had been added to the crew, but his attention was immediately 
diverted by smoke beyond the breakwater, denoting the coming of a steamer, 
and he forbore to increase the humiliation of the two Mexicans by dwelling on 
them. 

Not a quarter of an hour afterwards, as the steamer was signalled, and 
showing her private emblem, was telegraphed to Don Stefano Garcia as the 
Casta Susana , of Acapulco, direct from the Sandwich Islands, consigned to him, 
the goleta left the port, speeding under all sail, right through the steamer’s 
trailing smoke. 

For one second this vapour eclipsed the Burlonilla , which seeing, Matasiete 
standing on the pierhead beside the baffled Senora Maria Josefa, remarked : 

“ There is nothing under canvas that can take that craft ; but I will have a 
try at it with steam. Will you come ? ” 

“ Anywhere ! ” cried the vindictive sister of Don Josd de Miranda, “ anywhere, 
if revenge only flourishes there.” 


5 ° 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


“ I think,” muttered Ignazio to himself behind this worthy pair, “ that Don 
Jorge Federico had far better have left me first officer of the Burlonilla. At the 
same rank on board of the Casta Susana , methinks I shall handle my brother’s 
pearls before he does.” 


CHAPTER XIII. 

INTERVENTION. 

The Burlonilla proved herself commendably swift. Had she been even a faster 
sailer, Captain Gladsden would have never dreamt, of going out to sea with a 
view of eluding any one curious about the movements of the eccentric young 
Englishman, after the disappearance of Ignazio being reported to him. Search 
h'igh and low, not a trace of the rogue. Spite of the sharks at Guaymas, 
Capitano Don Jorge was so convinced that the lieutenant of bandoleros was 
inevitably fated to adorn the gallows, that he believed the rogue had reached 
land, or, as the Vice-Consul could have given him a pointer, been taken into the 
scow of his famous colleagues. 

Without being aware that the steamer was at the command of those who couid 
be accounted his enemies, and would be sent in pursuit, or, rather better to say, 
since Ignazio was the pilot, would strive to anticipate him, the captain made all 
haste for the spot indicated on Pepillo’s plans. 

Since Ignazio had but a vague surmise to go upon, the Burlonilla passed Point 
St. Miguel without anything hostile arising, and soon cast anchor at the second 
of the islets, in a chain which were named after the knots in the rope girdle of 
St. Francis. But the seafarers, men supremely practical, who do not fetch 
their similes from afar, had also preferred to take the protuberances for a likeness 
to the knots in a logline, call them, Los Senyales de la Cordonera de San 
Francisco. The good mission priests might protest, but the laws of the 
Medes and Persians are easily effaceable as compared with a name down on a 
sea-chart. 

Between the mainland, where a dreary haze hinted of the smoke of sleep- 
ing volcanoes in the rocky ridge of the peninsula of old California, and the 
string of isles, the brigantine was made secure by stem and stern. 

The mainland was rugged, and apparently admirably abundant with vegetation. 

There were giant palmettos tossing their feathery tops to every catspaw, in 
isolated clumps, among a verdant screen of varied trees. 

Alas, for the trickiness of Dame Nature. That luxuriance was superficial, the 
verdancy that of worthless shrubs, cactus, and prickly pear, briar, vine and 
beach, plum, thorn apple and Dead Sea fruit. Behind that illusive foliage, 
sand, lava, stones, dust, formed the melancholy waste in which the scanty, wild 
creatures live in perpetual madness, induced by chronic thirst. Without 
irrigation, Lower California is an Arabia Petrae. 

But as Gladsden had no intention to settle, he was content with the alluring, 
if deceptive, face of the country. 


Intervention. 


5 * 


The first real annoyance was to find a small colony of Indian mongrels, pain- 
fully carrying on the re-raking up of the shells of the abandoned pearl-fishery 
grounds. Their huts were picturesquely perched on rocks, the leafy roofs 
oramented with gallinasos , fowls, more than half wild, which indolently hunted 
for food in the natural thatch of palm and brush. These born pearl-fishers had 
been there so long, that they had laid out Tittle gardens for ground and 
bush, fruit and vegetables, defended by live cactus. Above patches of 
sugar-cane glowed the golden globes of orange and citron, amid deep green 
leaves. 

As Don Jorge Federico de Gladsden had come, not to scrape oyster shells, 
but to haul up a mass of pearls in a submerged box without desiring prying eyes 
to witness the operation, he allowed Benito to get the observers out of the way 
by simply hiring the whole settlement to go fishing at another point of the 
broken reef. From the brigantine they could be seen, without their being able 
to watch the peculiar fishing in which her crew were about to engage. 

Fishing for pearls is a much mo*e dangerous and difficult operation than is 
generally supposed. 

Each of the several piraguas , or piragues, or dugout canoes, as you please, 
had two men, stripped for diving, save an apology for bathing-drawers, girded 
on by a rope. This retains to the left side a leather sheath for a heavy knife, 
not less than eighteen inches long and three fingers wide, sharp as a razor, 
intended to battle with the sharks and stripe-backs, manta erayas, a kind of 
galvanic ray of which the mere contact paralyses the victim. 

The worst kind of shark, the tintorera, that is to say, “ the dyer,” promenades 
the Pacific where human beings congregate, and comes up the Gulf. One of the 
headlands on the east coast is named after this terror of the pearl-divers. The 
tintoreia owes its cognomen to a singular peculiarity, which reveals his presence 
providentially to afar off. Pores around his muzzle exude a luminous, gluey 
matter, which spreads over the entire body and gives him a glowworm-like 
effulgence. Over and above this, the animal is next to blind, and consequently 
cannot go by sight alone to any point desirable. While, too, other sharks, to 
seize their prey, simply turn over on their sides, Senyor el Tintorera has to 
roll belly up completely. 

When there are any such squalae around the fishing place, no day passes 
without there being “ knots to untie,” between the divers and the tintoreras, as 
well as the manta-rayas, and, almost always, the men only cut clear after 
horrible struggles. 

When the diver takes his “ header,” his fellow paddles the skiff forward so as to 
accompany the plunger’s diagonal immersion, whilst his rise is, on the contrary, 
vertical. This is done to pick up the swimmer at the very identical instant of 
his reaching the surface, his left arm laden with oysters and his lungs eager to 
catch air. Then he climbs in, takes the paddle, and manages similarly whilst 
his mate does the diving. 

Good divers go very deep, the most famous can touch bottom at twelve and 
even fifteen fathoms, and can stay under for seven or nine minutes, but these are 
rare, the majority not surpassing four and five minutes, which is very pretty. 
The' mated divers keep on by turns until they have brought up the requisite 
quantity of oysters. Their gains are miserable, and these whom Captain 
Gladsden engaged were delighted to get a dollar a dozen. Many a shell has to 
be opened before any pearls are found ; ten or twelve per cent, is a good 
proportion for the enriched ones, and then again, many pearls are far from 
valuable. The basis of the estimation is the orient, as much as to say the lustre 
of the concentric layers, the “ water,” the roundness, and the size. Those worth 


The Treasure of Pearls . 




a couple of thousand dollars are found on the South American coast, and still 
more seldom in ‘‘the Sea of Cortes,” where we now are. 

Whilst the hired Indians were engaged at this submarine toil, Benito and the 
two red men, old acquaintances of his, who would not have engaged themselves 
to another master, were searching the water at the side of the brigantine first, 
and latter, farther and farther away, accompanied by the yawl, two men pulling 
so that the two red men could rest calmly till they relieved the Mexican at the 
watery work. 

For a time there was a growing belief that Ignazio’s brother had lied, or that 
the chest had been burst by the waters churned up by the temporal , as is named 
the terrible wind, the West Coast counterpart for “the Norther” of Texas, or, 
at the best, moved it away into deep water. But Benito and his copper acolytes 
were expert in judging the aquatic “signs,” and soon pronounced that the 
blueish tint that denoted a pearl-oyster bed, showed a bright bar from a break 
in its continuity. The chest had dragged, but was not lost. Within an hour, all 
three divers being down at once, the old Indian came up and uttered a joyous 
shout on expelling his breath. He had a fragment of tarry rope. Next, Benito 
struck the trail, and came up crying, as soon as ,he could speak, that he had 
discovered the chest, the buoys had been ea f en away by marine creatures on the 
tooth of time, and the treasure-coffer had sunk, crushing into an oyster bed. 
The wounded oysters had exuded their pearly fluid and coated the strange object 
beautifully, and the shell-fish had settled on it, but there it was in its lustrous and 
lovely mantle. 

The yawl returned to the brigantine with this good news. It was coming on 
dark, so that nothing could be done till morning, but make ready a drag and 
hauling and lifting tackle, the hooks of which the chief diver and his aids under- 
took to attach, as confidently as others would work on dry land in open air. 

Donna Dolores, whom, as a young bride, her husband had allowed to 
indulge in all her caprices — and heaven knows a Mexican girl, liberated by 
wedlock, so to say, paradoxically, has an infinity of tastes to gratify — had 
indulged in too much sweetmeat to have been a good sailor. As a consequence 
she was glad of the suggestion of Gladsden that, during the anchorage, she should 
remain on shore in the best hut of the little settlement. With the things lan led 
from the Burlonilla the haquel (little hut) was made tolerable lodgings — a relief 
to the confinement of the brigantine’s cabin. 

The night was lovely, after a glorious sunset, when the reflections of the 
sublime play of orange and vermilion suggested why the early navigators were 
led to call those upper waters of the Gulf the Red Sea ( Mar Rojo), rather than 
because the united streams of the Gila and Colorado pours, dyed with iron and 
copper, into the clearer blue. 

In the deep, deep sky the stars glittered like diamonds of more than mortal 
polish. There was a mingling of air off the peninsula fragrant with wild 
flowers, of air off the Gulf, of tempered briny billows bumping the rocks of 
Cape St. Lucas, and of hot, dry breath from the main land, rich with a honey- 
like sweetness that cloyed. All was still, all was lonely, and the sole cry, at 
long intervals, was that of the lean cayote, stealing over "the sands and mingling 
his starlight shadow with those of the giant cacti, shaped like colossal men 
brandishing maces and clubs, as he curiously regarded the brigantine. 
If a slight breeze ran along the shore it almost musically clattered the oysters 
clustered on rushes and mangroves, standing part submerged. Behind them the 
mesquito and acacia, and back of all the sparse woods on the rising slope : 
beyond that peaks well apart. 

Once in the nightwatch the look-out reported a red fire-gleam southwards like 


Intervention , 


53 


a fallen star quenching itself in the Gulf, and twice smoke was espied in the 
same quarter. 

They knew it not, but it was Matasiete, after a search of San Luis Gonzales 
Bay by daytime, pushing the steamer into the shoals around the Islands of San 
Luis and Cantador. The double incentives of revenge and greed made the 
amphibious rascal excessively daring. 

In the morning, therefore, Gladsden coming on deck early to have a tub in the 
brackish water drawn for his ultra- English custom, himself beheld the chaste 
Susan a , full steam on, steering for the knots of the log-line of St. Francis, 
and, logically, for himself. 

It would have been hard to lose the prize just when he had verified its 
existence, as well as one may believe in a pig — we mean a pearl in a poke % 

The Burlqn.il La floated two guns and a swivel, and no deficiency of small 
arms. The steamer had four ports, and canvas-covered objects, one at bow 
and one at stern, were no doubt the complement of her armament. She came 
down to within two cables’ length of the anchorage of the goleta, blowing off steam 
noisily, not to say threateningly, and there let her both bower-chains run out. 
A kedge and hawser, let from the stern, enabled her numerous crew to moor 
her so that her broadside overawed the little brigantine. Before this man- 
oeuvre, Gladsden was fain to believe it was only one of the smugglers which 
often run up the Gulf and await the result of the negotiation of the consignees 
and the port -officers before returning to Guaymas or elsewhere, and discharging 
a cargo on which, thus, the Exchequer of Mexico is neatly defrauded and the 
public deficit is kept from lessening. 

With his glass Captain Gladsden had recognised as the officer on the 
steamer deck none other than the double traitor Ignazio. It needed nothing 
more to understand that the new comer would stick at nothing on this desolate 
coast where the ship duel would have no seconds or interferers. 

He was ordering Mr. Holdfast, after having pointed out the Mexican to him, 
to hurry all hands over breakfast with a little intimation that some of them 
would dine in paradise if they did not beat off the unwelcome visitor. 

Suddenly the old Indian tutor and friend of Benito pointed shoreward. The 
canoe of the pearl diver was putting off with him and Donna Dolores. 
Instantly, being a little nearer, and seing the same sight, there was a bustle 
on the quarterdeck of the Susana, and there appeared in gorgeous array, 
even eclipsing that of the Chilian representative in which he had last been 
admired, the celebrated Don Annibal Cristoval de Luna. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


THE HAUL OF MILLIONS. 

Soon a cutter was lowered, in which the Mexican got, with the radiant Ignazio 
as his coxswain, and four oarsmen, while the moment it started in pursuit, or 
as matters stood then, for the encounter r-f Benito’s little piragua, Donna Maria 
Josefa de Miranda hoisted herself up the stairs and lumbered to the side of the 
steamer to gloat over the proceeding. 

Gladsden saw that, though he had a boat got ready, the canoe must be met 
before he could intervene, to say nothing of the probability of a volley from the 
bow of the Casta Susana checking his attempt in mid-career. If, besides, the 
pearl-diver ran himself ashore, encumbered with the young lady, he was almost 
sure to fall among the mesquit brush under the pistols of the salteador and his 
lieutenant. 

It was no question till the young Mexican and his wife were out of peril, of 
attacking the formidable steamer. 

Benito’s red ally, who had whispered to his grandson and drawn a nod of 
comprehension from the latter, had stripped himself, as did the youth, for 
diving. All other eyes were on the chase. They slipped over the low board 
unnoticed, opposite the Casta Susana, and as silently took to the water and 
swam away. It looked as if they deemed the impending combat hopeless, and, 
like the rat, quitted the surely defeated ship. 

In the meantime, poor Benito, recognising with whom he had to deal, was 
plying the paddle manfully, whilst Dolores, falling on her knees in the canoe, 
set ardently to praying, her hands clasped, and her eyes on the profound sky. 
All at once, without giving a warning to the girl, so that she was shaken in her 
devotions, Benito turned the pirague somewhat, evaded the Susamalis boat, and 
went straight to a little rocky islet of some height, well covered with rushes and 
other vegetation. It would mask him from the Casta Susana's crew, though 
leaving that vessel between him and his friends. Possibly, he had no other aim 
than to deposit Dolores thereon, and stand in defence of her against all 
comers. 

The Mexicans began to cheer their captain, whose boat, clumsily turned, 
resumed the hunt. 

Very little could be seen now of the chase from the low-lying goleta, and 
though Gladsden recklessly climbed up the rigging to get a view over the 
thronged deck of the steamer, soon the piragua and the cutter were veiled by 
the islet from all the spectators, friends and foes. 

“ Every man to the boats ! ” cried the Englishman. “ Arm to the teeth, and, 
cook, all the matches and tar ; we'll board that beast of a smoky tub,” appealing 
to the seamen’s hatred of a steamer to fire their energy, “ take her or leave her a 
prey to the flames ! Every man, active and idlers, away ! ” 

There was, indeed, a very fair prospect of the Casta Susana being taken by 
surprise, so enwrapt was the attention of all the people of the Mexican, taking the 
cue of Donna Maria Josefa, with interest and anxiety. 

But the coup de main never came off. Half way to the target, Gladsden was 
startled to see her, previously riding, doubly secured, so stiffly, nod, and begin 
to rock, then cant at such an incline whilst settling down slowly, as to cause the 
Mexicans to catch hold of every near object. 

A great outcry arose. 


The Haul or Millions, 


55 


It was repeated with anguish, as the careering continued as if a giant hand 
was rolling her over. Then the black faces of the stokers and engineer were 
seen as they came climbing up on deck to add themselves to the no less terrified 
crew. The steamer’s deck was at a slope of forty-five, everybody clinging to 
the uppermost gunwale, save the unlucky ones who had rolled to the down 
scuppers, in among the rubbish which a Mexican captain allows to encumber 
his upper planks. The swaying cannon above threatened to break loose and 
crush these struggling wretches to marmalade, whilst their vis-a-vis, bursting 
the port lids, ran out to the carriages and kissed the agitated water. Poor 
Maria Josefa. grasping a sailor round the body whilst he hung on the taut guy 
of the reeling smoke pipe, hovered over the knot of writhing, fighting men 
trying to get a footing on a surface every moment changing its centre of 
gravity. 

At that direful instant the boat of Gladsden was slightly pulled down on the 
opposite side to the steamer, and two dark heads succeeded two pair of red 
arms, abiuptly seizing the gunwale by chin and hands. In the mouths of 
both were the formidable navajas , “gapped” by recent rough usage and 
pointless. 

“You, Diego ? and young Diego ?” cried the captain, assisting them on 
board. 

“ Yes; you see um steamer go down, and you see um pirates go up pretty 
soon dam quick ! Old Diego and young Diego play sword-fish — we scuttle tlie 
steamer, see ? ” 

In fact an ominous hissing seemed to indicate that the water rising within the 
steamer, well on her side now, was menacing a blow up of the boilers. The 
engineer and his mate fully foresaw this, and were scrambling into a boat, 
jammed of its fall in the blocks. 

“ Heaven guard us ! ” was the shout on the ill-fated steamer. Some forty men 
were seen preparing to launch the boats, or even leap into the water, when 
a louder scream, though from one pair of lungs, was audible over the clamour. 
Donna Maria Josefa, with the sailor on whom she would not' relax her grasp, had 
rolled like a ball across the perpendicular decks, bounded over the bulwarks, 
now washed by the water, and splashed out of sight. 

As if her plunge had been arranged for the eliciting of a salute, pistol 
shots from the rock islet announced that the pirates and Benito were at firing 
range. 

There was chaos. 

The hissing steam, the splitting vessel, the straining yards and masts, the 
knocking about of everything loose within the half-flooded hull, the exclamations 
of the men in the wafer, some of whom mounted on the drift, shouted out 
“shark!” no pen can do justice to, and to the critical situation which Donna 
Maria was the most prominent object, the centre, the feminine hub of a wheel 
of frantic men. 

The Englishman took the only course, however risky, towards desperadoes who 
might not appreciate humanity. He rowed to the spot, reached the centre, and 
after nearly capsizing the boat, dragged the woman safe to the stern-sheets. 
The heavy mass lay there, inert as a stranded porpoise. 

Shrieks, and the disappearance of men in the water, of whom no further traces 
were yielded up but the ruddy bubbles which marked a shark’s wake, incited the 
Burlonitta's crew to greater speed in their rescue. But they would have been 
swamped by the concourse of frightened men, whom not even the presentation 
of a cutlass or loaded pistol kept off ; luckily the steamer had finished her going 
down, having attained the level which was her altered draught, while the com- 




The Treasure of Pearlsl 


pressed air buoyed her. The Mexicans, seeing her deck become almost level, 
climbed upon her in dread of the tintorera. Gladsden left, these to count their 
missing, whilst he conveyed his cargo, as prisoners, to his vessel, where they 
were secured. He had the swivel trained for precaution on the unfortunate Casta 
Susana , smokeless, fireless, waterlogged, and retraced his course with a circuit 
to avoid the disabled foes, so as to bear the too long-delayed succour to his 
young friends. 

Benito had run the canoe up a little cleft in the rocks, shoaled her on a stretch 
of sand, taken out Dolores and placed her in a grotto. Before her he rolled a 
stone, as a breakwater, gave her his revolver, and stood on guard only with the 
pearl-diver’s knife, which, however, he well knew howto swing and thrust, as 
well as cast — a string enabling this latter trick to be executed without the knife 
being lost. 

Urged madly on by Matasiete, the noise on the other side of the islet on his 
ship puzzling him, and giving him an earnest desire, to wipe out the present 
vexation and return to his post, the boat stove itself on the rock. The water 
was not deep, the men could leap from stone to stone or wade. The waders, 
two in number, trod on a sting-ray or an electric fish, for they were heard to 
groan and seen to fall palsied in their tracks. 

The rest confronted Benito. He drew their fire, expressly to prevent a shot 
being directed at his wife, and then met their charge in a mass. As the mob 
enveloped him, Dolores fired the revolver twice, more at random than with 
careful aim. One shot told, for a seaman left the struggle to go on of itself, 
whilst he reeled aloof, and tumbled off the rock into the water. Two more 
Benito gave a quantum of steel to In£zio and his commander were left alone to 
quell the dangerous young Mexican. So far they had not been able to use 
their firearms without the hazard of injuring their own. They drew off to fire 
with deliberation, when the young wife, whose head had cleared after her first 
shot, and who was made a heroine by seeing that the life of her bel ved perhaps 
rested on the true flight of the little globes of lead in the revolver, let fly at 
Ignazio, whose backbone was broken by the two shots. As he fell in a heap, 
the salteador chief, aghast at being so quickly placed solitary before his foeman, 
wheeled round and fired at the smoke oozing out of the young woman's cave. 
She screamed, for a fragment of stone, cut off by the bullet, had fajlen on her 
neck, and she believed she was killed, supporting the delusion by swooning 
away. Receiving no reply, therefore, to his heartrending call, Benito flew at 
the murderer with so awful a countenance and so menacing a flourish of the 
blood-smeared knife, that Matasiete did not pause to try to raise his name to 
Mata-ocho, “ the slayer of eight.” He backed, and then plunged into the bush. 

“ Hola, cobarde ! ” cried Benito, but the other made no reply. 

There was a crashing of the bushwood, a splash, and all was silence. The 
young Mexican heard his name behind him in a faint voice, and renouncing 
vengeance at the appeal of love, went quickly to his wife. Dame Dolores 
required nothing but his presence as a proof of his safety to be recovered of her 
fright. 

After making certain that the assailants were incapable of mischief, the two 
who had been stunned by the fish surrendering with as much alacrity as their 
confused senses permitted, the couple had the satisfaction of being hailed from 
the boat of Gladsden. 

It is regrettable to say that the latter, in his concentration of thoughts upoy 
the rescue of his friends, was deaf to his oarsmen beguiling the time as the- 
shot by the wreck, by supplying the words to the notes of the key-bugle in th‘» 
hands of their ship keeper. He was playing a song popular at the period of 


The Haul of Millions t 


57 


the outbreak of the Gold Fever in California, of which the chorus runs someway 
thus — applicably, the singers fancied, to the situation s 


“ Oh, oh. Susannah ! don’t you cry for me. 

I’m yoing to Californy wtth my washbowl on my knee/* 

The young couple were gaily taken off the islet, though the two Mexicans 
were left there to regain their clearness of wits, whilst a prolonged search was 
made a'l arouna it for the lost leader. The islet did not contain him, there was 
little likelihood that he had gained the mainland, though a sanguinary streak 
gave reason to the supposition that he had at least essayed to do so. No doubt 
of it, he had been devoured by a tintorera, unscrupulous about entombing the 
pietended scion of three of the great conquerors of Spanish America. It must 
be confessed that this tragic end caused no chagrin to the crew and extra force 
of Guaymas riffraff who acted as marines on board the Casta Susana. They 
blamed him for the whole of the disaster, and it was a good thing for his consort 
in the expedition, Donna Maria Josefa de Miranda, that she was remote from 
the crew, exceedingly spiteful since they had escaped a watery ora shagreen- 
foound grave. 

That lady had been completely changed in character by her bath in the Gulf, 
a magic wrought by Pacific water which may recommend it in the future to the 
lovers of peaceful married life vexed by an irritating aunt. She showed herself 
quite kind towards the pair, and blamed the late Don Annibal for all her 
persecution. 

Ignazio and his master having kept to themselves and carried away with them 
the secret lure which had decoyed the Casta Susana to lay her ribs on the 
knots of the logline reef, the Mexicans displayed no desire to linger. They 
filled their boats with provisions, loaded a raff to be towed with other articles, 
and, the weather being fine, started off to Whale Channel, intending to cross 
and coast along till picked up. The peninsula was too sterile to afford so large 
a party any hope of successful land marches to reach inhabitants. To have done 
with them : they had to cut the raft adrift off '1 iburon, and, parting company, 
the three boats separately reached the port whence they sailed — having had to 
live on tortoise and even cayman — en route. 

Long before their arrival, Gladsden’s vessel had transported Dolores, her 
husband, and their aunt, fully reconciled, to Guaymas, where — as their marriage 
had been so informally and unceremoniously performed by a friendly priest — 
Father Serafino — they received the grand nuptial benediction in the presence of 
a numerous assembly of the best society, among whom Captain Gladsden had the 
honour of signing his name as witness. It is needless to say that Don Stefano 
Garcia, in considerable trepidation — walking tike a cat on hot cinders, as the 
proverb goes — did not attend the ceremony. 

Before the wrecked men of the Casta Susana came to port the treasure of 
peails had been divided. There were other valuable stones, notably emeralds, 
but the pearls were worthy all of Pepillo’s eulogy ; there were perfect ones for 
shape and other qualities — the pears, the globes, the flat-crown (tympania, or 
kettledrum-shaped, as the ancient said), in short, the cnoicest specimens 
imaginable of “ the Pinnic stone.” 

Don Benito agreed to maintain the family of Pepillo and a sweetheart of 
Ignazio out of his half-share, amounting, as valued by Mr. Lyons (who had his 
racial genius for estimating precious stones), to .£150,000, well over-running 
Pepillo’s rough casting up. Both he and Gladsden placed a large sum in the 
bishop’s hands for almsgiving ; they contributed towards the breakwater and so 
on, and then separated, each in his own way to enjoy the filibuster’s hoard, 


58 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


originally accumulated to revolutionise Lower California as a preliminary to 
annexing it to the United States. 

Captain Gladsden sailed to San Francisco, where he disposed of the Little 
Joker , and of some of the pearls, and travelled overland to take steamship for 
England. 

Don Benito accompanied his wife back to her paternal estate, which was to 
be their happy home. 


CHAPTER XV. 

THE PATHFINDER’S HONOUR. 

Here might the author stop, and, in sooth, he was going to write the words 
“ The End,” glad that the episode of the pearl-fisher had, at least, the happy 
finis so desired by the novel reader; but my editor,* who was smoking a cigar 
at my elbow, in my sanctum, and who had been interested enough in what I 
was dashing off to follow the lines over my shoulder, checked my hand abruptly. 

“ Here, here ! ” he cried, as “ The End ” was on the point of flowing from my 
pen. “ Do you mean to tell us that you know nothing more of Benito Vasquez, 
his bride and his friends ? ” 

“ But I do,” I answered with a sigh, for a sad memory had been revived by 
ne unexpected inquiry. “But may I not leave the Pearlfisher rich on his 
ncienda in Sonora ? ” 

“ No,” said my editor. “ Why should you stop here ? As long as you do 
know something more about him, the tale is not told. Our readers, who have 
become enwrapt in your hero — I may almost say your two heroes — will be 
charmed, I warrant, to learn all they can further.” 

“ Now, do you really think,” I inquired, hesitatingly, “ that this continuation 
Will not bore ? ” 

“ Far from that, since it will complete the opening. I must acknowledge that 
your finish struck me as pulling up short. To conclude with, ‘ And so they were 
wed, and all lived happy ever after,’ is to be met with in every novel and 
romance.” 

“ Have your own way,” I answered, “ since you wish more, my dear friend, I 
shall go on and give you the completion required, which, this time, you may 
make up your mind to it will not be rounded off at the altar. Only I would like 
every one to know that you, and you alone, insisted upon having it so.” 

“ Ver y w ell,” he said, laughing ; “ scribble away ! I am sure we shall be the 
gainers ! ” 

And now, dear readc rs, having protected myself as regards you all, I continue 
the story with the hope that the conclusion will interest you as much as, I under- 
stand, the foregoing has pleased you. 

Mr. Gladsden went to England to imitate his friend and comrade by sacri- 
ficing to Hymen. J 


* Of the Paris weekly newspaper in which this romance had delighted the insatiable reader. 


The Pathfinder' s Honour . 


59 


He married, and had two sons. They were still young when he lost their 
beloved mother, and ere long, in accordance with that very contra-French 
custom of keeping the children in leading-strings which pushes the British boy 
into life beyond the home, they dwelt remote from him at school. He was, 
therefore, a lonely man. Politics had no attraction to one still active, fox- 
hunting was tame after his American experience, and yachting was baby-play to 
a genuine mariner. 

Gladsden had already shown his remembrance of Mexico by investing heavily 
in its Western Rail wav, and hence he was confidently approached by the pro- 
moters of that link which should make it fully trans-Continental, and by the 
later projectors, who sought to establish the line between Guaymas and that 
running down through the wild lands to Santa Fe, El Paso, Topeka, and thus 
binding the Cactus Country to that of wheat, corn, and cattle. 

From joining the board of the latter companies to volunteering to go out and 
investigate the causes of a prodigious slowness in building the line was an affair 
of short duration. Mr. Gladsden’s offer was gladly accepted, and he started 
with alacrity, which proved how deep had been his longing to break away from 
social trammels. 

This time he proceeded overland from New York, and finally surveyed the 
route of the Great Southern Pacific Railway as far as El Paso. There a chance 
speech overheard in the Continental House, which enclosed a reference to the 
rich land proprietor, Don Benito de Bustamento, changed his purpose to proceed 
still westwardly. He engaged a guide and horses, and was, at the beginning of 
May, traversing the Sierra de las Animas, or Mountains of All Souls. 

On the twenty-fifth of that month, going on four of the afternoon, a time 
clearly indicated by the disproportionately long shadows of the trees on the 
sandy soil of the savannah, and the coppery red colour of the sun, which 
appeared like a fiery disc at the level of the lowermost branches, we see Glads- 
den and his guide mounted on native horses. The superior u’ore for old 
acquaintance sake the costume of Mexican rancheros, and his attendant the 
picturesque and typical garb of the hunter of the West. They were both armed 
to the teeth, as a matter of course, for, in this quarter, all honest men are 
exposed to the three heads of the South-Western Cerberus : that of the 
“rustlers,” or white desperadoes; of the bandoleros , or Mexican thieves; and of 
the wild Indians, none of them uniting with either of the others, but true Ishmaels. 

It was remarkable that the prairie guide, however, had acceded to the progress 
of improvement in firearms, in lieu of the long and heavy rifle so celebrated 
along the backbone of the Continent in the hands of the trapper ar.d hunter, 
this man carried, like his employer, a finely-finished Winchester breech-loading 
and repeating rifle, much stronger and larger than the general pattern. 

The pair had just emerged from an immense forest of cedar, which had never 
yet known the woodman’s threat, though doomed ere long to feed a locomotive 
engine’s furnace, and were glad to cry halt at the skirts of the covert. Then 
they trotted down to a pretty stream, which was one of the sources of the Yagui 
River, and bending so far to the westward as to make an inexperienced explorer 
fancy it had something to do rather with the San Miguel. 

Indeed, the woodsman examined the muddy waters with serious heed for a long 
time, and executed some mental calculations in that wonderful untaught trigo- 
nometry of the frontiers-man. Then, stopping his broncho by a scarcely 
perceptible pressure of his knees, he bent gracefully towards his employer, and 
said, as he smiled good-humouredly : 

“ Hyar you hev it, Mr. Gladsden ; this ar the safe ford, though the melting 
snow has set the sink-pits filling, of which I war speaking this noon-day,” 


6o 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


i “Quite certain, eh, Oliver?” remarked the English gentleman. 

“ I wish I was as sartin sure I shell die with my har on,” was the other’s 
laughing answer, showing magnificent teeth for a man of fifty, which hard 
biscuit and harder deermeat, with plenty of “ chaw ” in it, seeme 1 nowise to 
have impaired. “ Anybody but me moUt go askew, but I have known all these 
tracks (he meant ‘ tracts,’ for it was a trackless wild, in plain truth), now an’ 
agen, off an’ on, for over fifteen year.” 

“ Pray overlook my offensive persistency, Oliver ; but J cannot help observing 
that I do not see any of the sites by which, according to my informants at The 
Pass, I was to learn the exact position of a crossing line in a treacherous stream. 
And I have been a sailor, too, and accustomed to go any course, if I have 
reasonable bearings laid down and visible.” 

“ Oh, I never mind your being cornered, sir,” went on the other, still merry ; 
“ they forgot to tell you the distances in mapping out the pints. You cannot see 
the Chinapa Peak even from here. But it’s all one, Mr. Gladsden ; here is the 
point of the Yagui. Yonder, I can see the smoke of a pueblo — the village they 
call Fronteras, as they do half-a-dozen such places within a crow’s fly along the 
borderland. That reddish haze is over the Rio Bravo, whence we came. Now, 
to reach the road to Arispe, you ci-oss and you keep dead ahead, and you *iust 
strike it.” 

“ Well, I must say, Oliver, that since I have had the pleasure of a journey at 
your side, all your information has been as credible as gospel. It is a long 
while since I was in the wilderness ; but I did have a taste of it once, and I am 
coafident that on more than one occasion already you have diverged from the 
apparently true course to save me from something unpleasant. I conjecture 
my equipment, on which I had no reason to spare money, excited the cupidity 
of some of the loafers at El Paso, and that we were followed.” 

“ Right you are ! and I threw them out clean twice. And a couple of times 
more, thar hev been injin ‘ signs’ hot as cayenne. That’s jest why I say you 
had best git over fhe water now, rather than wait any longer, though there will 
be less fear o’ your hoss being carried off his hoofs.” 

“ Fifteen years ago, my friend,” said Gladsden, who had not failed to remark 
mentally, how little the speaker had dwelt on the cares he had already exercised 
to preserve his charge from the “hostiles,” white and red, “ I should have been 
so reckless as to say — since I should like our having a parting meal together — 
let us sit here and eat away ! But I have no right to expose your life to peril, 
even if I had not two boys at home for whom mine is still desirable. So, if you 
do not object, let me show you that I have learnt prudence from your continual 
exercise of it, and that our repast shall take place on the farther side of this 
shallow, frothing, dirty-hued river.” 

“ Nothing hinders me,” answered the hunter. “ Have things your own way. 
Let us hie over before sundown.” 

He looked to the mustang’s already terribly tight girths, shortening the stirrup- 
straps and caught up some of the trappings which dangled in the Mexican .ityle. 

“Thar we ‘do’ the river,” he said, pointing, “follow me step by step.' I 
ought to go before, but your saddle-backis high, and you must triple your blanket 
across your shoulders and neck, in case of a shot. If we are fired on from the 
rear do not turn but fall flat on the horse’s neck. If we are fired on from your 
side, return the shot at anything moving in the froth. If from my side, I’ll deal 
with that. Leave your hoss free to step in the steps of mine, for the’crossino-. 
line is very narrer, the bottom one mass of holes and quicksands, and the current 
rushes like lightning where it does have free play ; there is, moreover, a gulf 
below with rapids that chalk. The least imprudence will send 


The Pathjinder’s Honour. 


61 


us, hoss and cavalyers, rolling along like Canady thistle balls in a breeze. You 
hev your caution — no fooling, mark! ” 

All the hunter guide’s mirthfulness had vanished, and the stern tone made 
Mr. Gladsden start. We know he was incontestably brave, and that he had 
gone through some such perils as now confronted him ; but the advance of 
civilisation in the South-West had given him an impression that his former 
adventures were things of an irrecoverable past. 

However, there was no time to meditate, for his guide had pushed his horse 
into the water ; and the other immediately followed it. They, too, seemed 
imbued with consciousness of the situation being perilous, for, though thirsty, 
they did not attempt to moisten their muzzles, albeit the bridles, as Oliver 
directed, were slackened and the cruel Mexican bits ceased their tyranny. 

The passage was performed without accident, and soon the pair were on the 
further bank in about the only break in a ragged, steep ledge. 

“ Hyar we kin stake out,” said the guide, “and await moonrise for our 
‘ forking off.’ Meanwhile, that feast, if you still air set on it, sir.” 

They dismounted, the hunter went and drew water for the horses in an india* 
rubber saddle bag, whilst the Englishman lifted off a huge double sack from t’. « 
back of his saddle, which is called the alforjas, and took out a deer ham and « 
plover already cooked, a piece of Dutch cheese so hard as almost to turn the kni J _ 
some green fruit, bananas, guavas, and chirimoyas which they had picked on ti*$ 
way to eat as a kind of salad, and lastly, some army biscuit. 

By the time the guide had completed his duties, the spread was laid. A very 
sober man, as most of these borderers are except when they ‘ break out ’ and 
indulge in a week’s heavy and uninterrupted drinking, much as seamen of 
‘ temperance ships ’ do after a rough voyage, Oliver merely added as much 
brandy, of which they had a couple of flasks full, as would settle the mud in the 
water freshly drawn. They both drew knives as sharp as their appetites, and fell 
on the victuals without losing breath in a further word in addition to a brief 
but feeling grace which the Englishman uttered, and to which the American, 
whom the innovation reminded of the same religious practice, vague from its early 
occurrence in his life, said a hearty “ Amen.” 

We take the moment, when this agreeable occupation rewards them both fora 
long, fatiguing ride, to trace their portraits. 

Gladsden had become a trifle portlier, and had lost his sunburns. He was less 
quick to move, but more irresistible in action than ever. In brief, the hussar 
was now a heavy cavalrist, whom even these few weeks in the South-West had 
improved in mind, wind, and limb. His sight was dimmer, but he had no need 
of glasses to shoot well and straight. 

His companion was a man apparently in the prime of life, but he must have been 
twenty years older than the three decades which seemed, to the casual observer, 
to sit so lightly on his broad shoulders. He was rather tall than medium, and 
the absence of superfluous flesh, and the unusual length of his limbs would make 
him look like a giant among the small-statured Mexicans and squat horse 
Indians, mostly bow-legged. His neck was short and muscular, and, thus, his 
head had a small aspect, like Hercules ; the features were cold if not stern, and 
his cast of countenance was devoid of muscular play, except when one of his 
merry moods was on him. Vigour and rigour distinguished him on active 
duty. 

o nder a broad forehead, his somewhat deep set eyes, crowned with bushy 
brows, were of a changeable nature, for, while almost blue when he was calm, 
anger caused them to become dull brown, and they could dart flashes like those 
of felines, they were very movable and were continually examining things 


62 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


around, save when he was addressing any one, whereupon they were straight, 
frank, and steadfast. His long brown hair, saturated with bear’s grease— for 
your frontiers-man has a sneaking respect for the toilet — and hence almost black, 
streamed long and freely out from beneath a home-made hat of mountain sheep- 
wool and covered his shoulders. 

His two names denoted the extent of his ranging ground, for he was generally 
known among his own race as “ Oregon Ol.,” and by the Indians of the Mexican 
border as “ the Ocelot,” that being the wild cat of the Mexicans (Ocelolt, in 
Aztec), a trifle less than the jaguar, but, muscularly speaking, very powerful and 
no joke for ferocious courage. 

In the same way as this well-known guide possessed several names, he could 
boast various reputations. The United States Army officers wrote him down as 
kindly, never down-hearted in sun or snow, skilful, honest to a button’s worth, dis- 
interested, knowing woodcraft thoroughly, always ready, a}e, even to help a 
friend out of pocket, canteen, or with his wits, bold to temerity when boldness was 
the best card, “ reliable,” and sticking to his man, friend or foe, to the last gasp. 

For the redskins, Oliver was quite other game : he inspired superstitious 
terror blended with admiration ; no one ever succeeded in contests of cunning 
with him ; implacable towards anyone who sought to injure or even annoy him, 
he would pursue the molester or molesters, one or many, to their final hiding 
place, cutting off stragglers, reducing the band like a man devouring a bunch of 
grapes, one by one, and knifing the last at his lone camp fire. “ That will teach 
them,” he would say, when reproached by new-coming dragoon officers, at the 
forts, who thought it unseemly for a white man to decorate his leggings with 
human hair like the reds. He meant that his punishment was to save, by its 
recital filling the Indians with dread, many another white man on the debateable 
ground, brother hunter, comrade trapper, emigrant, settler, pioneer, railway 
prospector. 

We say “brother” hunter and “comrade” trapper, for Oregon Oliver only 
shot animals ; to him, any other means of obtaining fur and feather would have 
been ignoble. 

Up to some five years back he had been in the habit of transmitting money, 
acquired by the sale of peltries, by piloting wealthy foreigners over the hunting 
grounds in fashion, and by schooling army officers in frontier warfare, to some 
relation in the Eastern States, who had succeeded his parents as the embodiment 
of the ideal of home ; but death having removed this claim, as he generously 
conceived it to be, upon his purse, he had no need to toil as formerly he did, and 
he led an easy life, following for the most part his own sweet free will, over the 
ten thousand miles which separate Southern America from the Polar Seas. 

These two men, as opposite in nature and station as well could be, had made 
acquaintance in the most natural manner. 

Mr. Gladsden wanted a guide into Sonora, and the colonel at Fort Fillmore, 
with whom he had been quail-shooting, had recommended “ the champion guide.” 

Once on the road to Arispe, studded with hamlets, all of them, perhaps, 
increased in importance since Gladsden’s previous stay in Sonora, a conductor 
was superfluous. At least he was under that impression. 

Hunters never dally with a meal ; a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes at 
the most suffice, then, if there be more time to spare, there is a chat amid 
tobacco smoke. Thus acted our two adventurers. 

The rest of the provender was restored to the alforjas, and Oliver filled a 
sweet corn cob pipe, whilst Mr. Gladsden selected an excellent regalia in a 
prettily carved Guayaquil wood box. As soon as they were both under a cloud, 
they mused for a while in silence. 


The Pathfinder s Honour. 


<53 


When the English gentleman broke this stillness, it was in the heartiest tone 
of good fellowship. It was to pay a compliment again upon the experienced 
guide and genial companion. 

“All right,” said the man from Oregon, “you are doing me justice: I hev 
done my level best. As long as all turns out well, and you have no dirt to cast 
on me, thar’s no bone splinters in my meat.” 

“ Oliver, you are a thorough white man,” went on Mr. Gladsden, uttering the 
acme of western flattery, “all but the liver, and I’d eat that of the rogue I ever 
caught defaming you or your class ! ” 

It was a savage way of putting it, which was not unfitting the scene. 

“ At home with a shoal of old servants about me, 1 would not lie down with the 
confidence that I feel in the desert beside you.” 

“You are painting it on mighty thick,” was the caustic answer, “but 
you do *not know enough of me to see that I am not any meet-every-next- 
minute kind of critter. Young in years, I was then aged by tussle and bustle. 
So, drop this flattery right thar which I shed, like a wild duck the spray of a 
waterfall. I hev carried out my engagement to a T, and that’s all said and 
done.” 

“Stop a bit! I shall send you out sor*? special present from England yet, 
over and above the mere pay. You have a rough mind, mate,” said Mr. Gladsden, 
laughing. 

*' Not a jot, no ! I am a plain man. It is all very well for you city folks when 
somebody has done you a good turn to talk of shining rewards, with the idee 
that you thereby put him in a lariat to folly you for the futur’, but, how shu’d 
you ! you are about wrong every time 1 You foun’ this coon pooty nigh sweeped 
out of existence, for when a hunter has lost mules, fixin’s, and rifle, all through 
them durn'd rechthievcs — Soo or Pawnee — he is an or’nary cuss on’y fit for the 
lnjin boys to switch. Then you begun operations by forcing on me this harnsum 
shooting iron, which has made me take back all my ripping out agen new-fangled 
machinery in firearms. It’s a ’stonisher ! ” — and he patted the wondrous weapon 
affectionately. “ Think o’ that, a marvel in herself , and an outfit in keeping to 
boot, and all gift-free! It’s lordly, that’s what it is, though I don’t pass out well 
in knowledge of your lords an’ sich. But I am off on a false trail. As I was 
sayin’, the man who swallers promises and who lik<*> praise is a hireling help 
and never a friend or compadre .” 

“ But I take it, we do part friends as we have journeyed, eh?” asked Mr. 
Gladsden, offering his hand with unhesitating trustfulness. 

“ You bet ! ” replied Oliver, grasping the hand so hastily that one could see 
that he would not have given any pain by delay for the world. “You were 
recommended to me by a gentleman whom I hold as of prime vally. I hev seen 
the Colonel, when we were floundering in the snows of the Sierrar, give up his 
rags and his last drink of coffee to a poor mixed blood teamster ! Why, I’d die 
for that man, and that man’s dog e’enamost! I am ready to die for you, as his 
friend. And that’s why it rode rough on me to have you want to break loose at 
the bank of this river, and plunge alone into the yaller bellies’ district. You 
mout as well ask me to lead a blind man safe over forty rod of rough ground 
to the brink of a precipice, and then let go his hand, a-saying: ‘ Now, let her 
slide, old dark-y l ’ ” 

“ At all events, you have fully done your task. But why do you again hint of 
danger? I give you my word that I have pricked up my ears — which is more 
than our horses have done — and yet not the slightest — ” 

“ Go on talking, and louder,” whispered Oliver, significantly. 

The Englishman hardly understood, but he obeyed the sudden mysterious 


6 4 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


injunction, whilst his interrupter continued with a vast relish to puff at his pipe, 
of which the smoke ascended thickly, and at regular periods. Gladsden listened, 
and stealthily gazed around, but to no avail. He then glanced at the American, 
who preserved the same ease of demeanour, and smoked as for a wager, his back 
to the stream, from which a sound of the turbulent ripple arose ; the tobacco 
glowed in the pipe-head, and dully illumined his brooding countenance. It struck 
the observer, however, that Oliver’s left hand was scarcely sensibly lowering 
upon his rifle, which, of course, was near at his side. 

Suddenly, with an action as rapid as thought, that weapon was picked up and 
levelled at the shoulder upon a bush, very thick with foliage, about a hundred 
and fifty paces afar, and instantly fired. There rose a little smoke from the 
touchhole-plate, but no shot resounded. 

Instantly a dark-complexioned man in hunter’s attire bounded out of the shrub 
with a whoop of triumph, and pointed his gun at the couple in camp. But 
before the Englishman could do anything, his safe-conductor, whose features 
assumed an expression of scornfulness, pulled the trigger of the breechloader a 
second time, and the unfailing bullet dashed into the brain of the stranger even 
as he was about to shoot. 

All this passed in less time than it takes to write it. 

Up went the man’s hands, so that his gun fell just a little before he measured 
his length on the ground, and curled himself up ; no cry, no second spasm ; he 
was slain straightway. 

“ Thought hisself a smart Aleck, I reckon,” remarked the hunter, with con- 
tinual contempt. “ You’ll crawl, sneak, and squirm no more.” 

“ If your rifle had snapped again, you or I would have been keeled over,” 
remarked the Englishman. 

“Great Scott!”* ejaculated the other, surprised, and laughing heartily, 
though not aloud. “ You ain’t a-going to say you were took in, too? Well, 

I never ! it must a’ been a ’tarnal choice dodge. 

“ What do you mean ? ” 

“ No great witchcraft. Look here ! this man here s a naif-breed— Apache and 
Mexican, I judge. Well, he’s been dogging us ever so long, mayhap from The 
Pass. Anyhow, I thought he got over the water by the False Ford, by the 
devil’s luck, and, anyhow again, I see him lodge himself right plum’ centre in 
that bush. Cou’dn’t sight him thar no more nor a fat dog in an Injin village. 
But I was fixed in the fact that thar he lay, aiming at me or you. So, to fetch 
him out slick, I resarved some ’bacca smoke in my mouth, and when I clicked 
my nail on the breech, I just let the smoke blow off ’s if it come out of the gun, 
d’ye see ? Lor, how the idiot was sucked in, I reckon ! He riz up, a-whoop- 
ing his triumph over the old Oregonian, a-thinking me without a load in ! so I 
had a right fa’r shot.” 

He went up to his victim and turned out his pockets, and transferred his arms 
to his girdle. 

“ He’s half Apache and half greaser, as I opined,” he pronounced on comin^ 
back. “So it would puzzle a Supreme Court lawyer to tell whether he is 
scouting on account o’ copper colour or yaller belly. Jest bit the horses, sir. 
In either case we must file ahead, an’ not let his gang catch on to us. Thar’s 
Tiger Cat and his Apaches on the war path, I heerd, and Oneleg Pedrillo, the 
champion this-side rustler, never smokes the pipe of peace. I am saying nothin^ 
make your notch, of the loafers who may have followed us, full of the* prospect 


Am&«wS S »’• a her0 ? f the War ? f l8r2 ’ artd that wIth Mexico, is an idol in the 
American Walhall;*. His name becomes an invocation only partially playfully used by the 
frontier army officers, their men, and the hunters. V * y 


A Haven worse than the Storm. 


65 


of a rich haul, for I r’ally b’lieve thar’s an impression at The Pass that you are an 
English Prince of the blood r’yal examining the United States to see how far South 
you want to annex it to Canada, though you ain’t out with a four-mule team.” 

Mr. Gladsden did not laugh at the rhodomontade, while preparing the steeds. 

The sight of the corpse, so lately a vigorous man springing out°of cover to 
take his life, had in one little instant made him comprehend on what dangerous 
ground he groped his, perhaps, henceforth hourly-threatened way. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

A HAVEN WORSE THAN THE STORM. 

What a difference between this rough country, where the earth was full of pits 
as a prairie-dogs’ village, and that old European soil teeming with hotels and 
inns, where the wealthy traveller could count upon a smiling welcome. 

Mr. Gladsden’s surprise was tempered with awe. All his ideas were perturbed. 
His notions of the true and false were upset. His education turned against him, 
and the instinct of self-preservation made him greet with joy all that he had 
acquired now of utility in that adventurous passage in his life which he had 
begun to deplore, and which he took the utmost care his growing sons should 
never know in detail. 

He congratulated himself on having been prompted not to neglect physical 
experience in favour of the moral, and to fill his mind with practical learning. 
Intelligence was an important factor, but it had to be backed up by strength and 
skill to be a conqueror in the desert. 

If ever he had felt the European aristocrat’s conceit over the Western 
Americans, he withdrew any injurious depreciation, for he saw clearly that this 
New World belonged to the clear head and strong arm, and that there was no 
more desirable comrade than this embodiment beside him of the Great Republic, 
who had supplemented his inborn powers with the savage’s sharpness, strategy, 
and address. 

In other days, he had lightly confronted similar perils from sheer ignorance of 
their extent ; but now, drawn back into the terrible whirlpool from the 
metropolitan centre of refinement, he felt his heart squeezed by a sudden weight ; 
he was no longer sure of himself as danger, hydra-headed, appeared under new, 
frightful and multiplied forms. 

It was in vain that he sought to recover the plenitude of his judgment. 
Nothing but the extreme stubbornness which was his racial characteristic, 
enabled him to master the strange emotions which he experienced, but, if he had 
lacked for daring and impulse of pride not to show the white feather before a 
man who he esteemed near enough of his kin to constitute a judge, this deter- 
mined him to impress favourably at any cost. 

While he was fortifying his will, Oliver had completed the preparations for a 
flight, taking it for granted that his obligation was not discharged till, this time, 
the English gentleman owned he was perfectly safe. 

They mounted, and gradually increasing the pace, went on for upwards of 
three hours without exchanging one syllable or tightening the rein. 


C 


66 


The Treasure of Pearls, 


They kept the source-stream of the Yagui on the north, racing through 
woodland where the guide eluded the branches with miraculous dexterity, and 
selected “lanes” through which his companion could ride, with lowered head 
and knees pressed in, without too much risk of an accident like Absalom’s. 

About ten o’clock they came out on the plain, broken with isolated wooded 
patches. The night was clear, warm and starry. The cold and pale spring 
moon shed a saddening light, confusing the ground objects, and impressing the 
prominences of the landscape with an aspect both fantastic and solemn. 

Soon there loomed up a definite form on the horizon. A light gleamed and 
then glimmered in the midst of a thicket of tulip-wood and magnolias. Towards 
this beacon Oregon 01. directed their way. 

“ We are running rusty,” he said, “ hyar we kin ile up.” 

Soon the chapparal began to “ hedge” away on both sides, and a rather large 
building gladdened the sight of the Englishman. Oliver showed no tokens of 
being similarly charmed. 

This edifice, built of mud-bricks, sun-baked, and whitened with lime-wash, 
was pierced with six mere loophole windows high up on the front ; it ranked 
midway between the ranche and the hacienda, that is, the shanty and the grange- 
house. Like all Mexican dwellings, it had a broad verandah sustained by pillars 
before the doorway, and a sodded flat roof in the Italian mode. All around it was 
a defiant wall in live cactus. 

Altogether, as the Englishman thought, a most agreeable and picturesque 
habitation. 

When the pair of horsemen were only a few strides away, the American pulled 
in a little, and, bending towards his companion at his knee, muttered : 

“ A regular whiskey hole I am taking you into, sir. But thar’s no place 
else whar we kin halt for rest. Don’t show disgust or astonishment at any- 
thing ; let me have all ‘ the say,’ and you kin lay high that we shell sleep as 
peaceably in that air den as in the best railroad hotel on the Great Pacific.” 

“ The horses seem strong on their legs still. Why should we not press on to 
that village of which I perceive the roofs on the sky-line, shining as if snow 
coated them ? Is it not Fronteras ? ” 

“ Nothing of the sort ! Fronteras is the other side of the water — that streak 
of olive green with reddish shadow. That is no town, but a village of no 
account, a cluster of peons’ cabins around the farmhouse. The sheep dogs 
would have to be beaten off from springing on our horses, and the labourers 
don’t like hereticos , anyhow. No, our safety and comfort says : Camp down 
hyar. 

“ Nuther item: we have twice crossed a warm, broad trail of Apaches, I 
calc’late, over a hundred strong, smelling like p’ison of war-paint, and I go into 
cover when thar air so heavy odds. Yes, this child do. Yonder hacienda is 
called that of the Ojo Agotado , the exhausted spring, or we plainsmen and 
mountain men say : ‘ the Gi’n-out.’ We shall not be received frien’ly thar, I 
say agen. Here, though, I can rely on being taken in cheerily, for the host would 
have lost his ears only I came along by the oak tree where he had been nailed 
up by them — little friskiness on the part of the ragamuffin warriors of One-leg 
Pedrillo’s gang. Don’t you fret : the Rancho Verde will house us, and you 
pertickler, first-chop, as the Chinee says.” 

“ I do not understand, but 1 am wholly in your hands.” 

“ That’s the best place to put yourself. You kin offer me a testimonial in a 
gold frame hereafter.” 

They moved on once more at a good pace. As they approached their goal 
the light of guidance seemed to spread out. Soon they could make out that an 


A Haven worse than the Storm. 


°7 


immense glare flamed from the open portals as from a crater, and they heard 
singing, whistling on war whistles, shouts, wild laughter, all jumbled up with the 
shrill twang of a guitar, of which the far from harmonious notes blended more 
or less satisfactorily with the rumble of a tambourine. 

“ Having a jamboree,” said the hunter, drawing rein at the blazing doorway. 

“ Some unfort’nat’ has lost his ducats. Uncle’s swarming with robbers 
to-night.” 

The ground was hard as flint, and the clatter of the horses’ hoofs had attracted 
to the mudsill (for the doorstep w'as embedded in the earth of the floor) a stout 
knave of some forty years, with a sullen eye, a ferocious mien, and ears as 
tattered as a fighting dog's. His peculiar complexion, yellowish, and muddy, 
and oily hair, denoted him to be no regular blooded white. This burly rogue, 
stiffly standing in the entrance, eyed the strangers sullenly without speaking. 

The American uttered the religious greeting customary among the Mexicans, 
to which the regular counter-speech was grumblingly accorded, and, alighting, 
he subjoined : 

“ Well, Tio Camote (Uncle Sweet-potato), hosquillo as ever ! Ay, even more 
gloomy 1 But how much longer air you going to keep an old companyero at the 
head of his nag ? Don’t you see with half an eye that my pard. an’ me have 
rattled along as if your grandad Old Horny was at our hosses’ tails, and that 
we want food and sleep as much as they do to bury their muzzles in oats ?” 

“ Why ! ” ejaculated the individual, who, by the rule of contrary which 
pervades the popular idea of fun, had been nicknamed '‘Sweet Potato,” 
“ Heaven forgive me, but, as true as I am a sinner, we have here Senyor Don 
Olivero. Just overlook my not having recognised your senyory at the first 
peep.” 

“ So I will, Aluino, — so I will ! Only get the animals into the stables right smart.” 

u Like a shot, senyor,” said the changed man with alacrity, and taking both 
bridles with no more pride than an hostler. 

“ Half a minute, uncle,” interposed the hunter, taking him by one of the 
split ears playfully, and yet with significance. “ I want you to keep in mind, 
Potato of Sweetness,” he continued, “ that your brother tiusts the intire consarn 
to you, — cattle, harness, bags, and inn’ards, — the whole consarn, you savey ? ” 

“ Yo sabe was the reply, tranquilly made, but the half-breed made a wry 
face which did not beautify its everyday expression. 

“ Now, that’s talking. You know me right down to my boots. So, git you 
gone, but don’t go to sleep, for I have something to talk about.” 

“ In ten minutes I shall be at your senyorship’s orders.” 

“ Good boy, Uncle A1 ! ” 

The hotel-keeper went away grumbling louder and louder, with the horses for 
the corral (enclosure). 

“ Stick your pistols in your belt, and follow me. You air going to see no end 
of a curious circus,” resumed Oliver to his companion. “ Keep cool, and a little 
swagger does no harm. These here tough men and rough men must think you 
no tender-foot-; I rayther guess they’ll figger me up first pop, as raised right 
hyar on the plantation.” 

“ I hope you’ll be content with me,” returned Mr. Gladsden ; “ I have made 
up my mind. I am not going to back out, but sail right over the bar , whatever 
the quantity of broken glass.” 

He laughed quietly, and assumed the bearing which he believed he had worn 
at the time he was clad in red flannel shirt and corduroy trousers tucked into 
cowhide boots when up the country, not a thousand miles from that spot, fifteen 
years before. 


63 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


“ That looks the ticket. I believe we are going to see some fun.” 

With that they entered the tavern with steady foot. 

The uproar that hailed their entrance seemed louder than before. Neither of 
them, however, was affected by the malevolent greeting, but strode to a heavy 
table, hewn into shape with the broad axe, where they installed themselves, and 
proceeded to take a disiainful survey of the patrons of the drinking den. For 
their part they devoured the intruders with most ravenous eyes. 

A pen dipped in vitriol would not adequately describe this vile haunt of all 
the scum of the border. The dozen guests were men of all mixed castes and 
hues, with hang-dog faces and in squalid rags. They were sodden already with 
the coarse liquor. The muddy, smoky, ignoble room was furnished with massive 
benches, stools, and tables, soaked with blood and spilt beverages. The bar had 
two ’tenders, men as sturdy as Camote himself, who carried pistols in hip 
pockets and long knives in sheaths at the back of their necks, more as if they 
were besieged behind the counter than anything else, so precious was the poison 
they serve t out. Their patrons sang, shouted, yelled, quarrelled, all through 
thick cigar smoke, played with greasy cards and yellowed dice, whilst one 
resumed pulling at his hraca's home-made strings. The gamblers, however, 
pulled out handfuls of gold and silver from the secret pouches in their bedraggled 
and tattered garments, worn from choice of slovenliness. 

The scene was illumined by several smoky widks swimming like decaying 
serpents in as foul green oil, in open lamps as antique in fashion as those now 
and again dug up in Old Spain. Each man had his own bottle, and the 
aguardiante, tepache, rum, and Californian wine, labelled falsely “ Catalonia,” 
flowed so profusely that some one was gurgling at them constantly. 

Such was this palace of prairie pleasures. 

The arrival of strangers had considerable effect. Far from benevolent 
squints, we repeat, were directed upon them fixedly, while murmurs of evil 
augury began to be heard. The objects of this growing ill-feeling replied by the 
most complete indifference to the provocations which were more and more 
emphasized. 

“ Warm,” remarked Oliver sententiously. 

“ We are in a hot box,” rejoined Mr. Gladsden. 

“ Yes, I reckoned it would be a mixed lot, ’stead o’ which, they are all of a 
gang. All the honest ruffians have been cleared out.” 

As Camote did not hasten in, Oliver rose, went up to the counter, threw down 
a dollar, took up a bottle at hazard, spite of the nearer bar ’tender’s scowls, and 
returned. He clapped it on the table, knocked off the ring of glass round the 
mouth and its cork a-flying, with a dexterous cut of the back of his knife, 
and poured out brimmers of wine for himself and his friend in the pannikin 
which, like a gold prospector, he always carried at his waist, and in the 
silver-mounted cup-cover of Mr. Gladsden’s brandy-pistol. 

“ Here’s to well-out-of-this ! ” he murmured in English. 

“ I concur,” added Gladsden heartily, and they drank. 

“ The music is over. The dance is going to begin,” said Oliver, putting his 
tin cup up in place. 

Indeed, the guitar, so noisy, was silenced. The player, a tall, haggard, 
lengthened rascal, who seemed to have been once hanged and pulled out by the feet| 
suspended the instrument carefully up on the walls and advanced in a swagger- 
ing way towards the latest comers, his hat outrageously cocked on one side as 
much to cover a patch whence a portion of the scalp had been removed as to 
look rakish, resting one fist upon his bony, prominent hip, and the other hand 
on the steel hilt of a very fine old rapier of enormous length. On gazing most 


A Haven worse than the Storm. 


69 


closely at Oliver, who happened to be the nearer to him, when he stopped in an 
insolent attitude, he remarked the additional pistol and knife in his belt acquired 
by right of conquest from the spy whom he had shot, and, after a moment’s hesi- 
tation, his colour coming again more deeply, he cried, ex abrupto : 

*' Flames of purgatory ! Gentlemen, I never knew of greater impudence than for 
you to present yourselves, after having murdered my brother-in-arms La Gallina.” 

“ Caballero, what do you mean by that ?” returned the American, as much 
surprised as all the auditors by this denunciation. 

“ Do you think I do not recognise the Chicken-heart’s pistol-of-two ihots, by the 
handle nicked with cuts for the men he has slain ? Was it not mine first, and did 
we not exchange firearms when we became sworn comrades in life-to-death ? ” 

“ Caballero,” said the hunter again, with killing politeness, “ I believe I did 
shoot some skunk that came prowling round me at supper time. But, the fact 
is, I hate to be riled when I am eating, or drinking , and I’ll put a bullet out of 
the same barrel into any one who repeats the annoyance. You hear me ?” 

“ Shoot me!” cried the bandit in a furious voice, as he drew the long 
blade. “ A thousand demons.” 

“Yes, you! right away too, you candidate for the gallows,” rejoined the 
hunter, rising. 

“ We’ll see about that, — Caray ! ” 

“ I guess you won’t see much of it, though the principal body consarned! ” 

Already the hunter had jumped forward to seize the fellow by the neck and the 
sword belt ; he raised the bag of bones as easily as if he had been a toy balloon, 
and getting him “ on the swing,” by an irresistible motion, forced him to fly 
twenty feet aloof. 

“ Excuse me not telling you, gentlemen, your friend was coming,” he remarked, 
sarcastically. 

The bandit almost flattened against the doorpost, and fell senseless just out- 
side the opening, only his long arms within. 

“ Some folks air so dull, a man’s obleeged to give them a warning,” added the 
Oregonian, resuming his seat. 

This feat had been executed so quickly that the spectators remained motion- 
less with amazement ; but on their anger enlivening them they sprang up, every 
man of them, and rushed towards the strangers with drawn swords and knives, 
yelling for blood and death. 

The very brutality and causelessness of this fresh attack made it the more 
mortal and savage. These drunken vagrants were too much on their guard 
against each other, and, besides, knew their own opponents’ abilities too well to 
fight among themselves, so that to fall upon strangers was always deemed more 
profitable. It was not, therefore, so much to avenge their fallen comrades as to 
obey the sanguinary instincts which the rudely-fabricated alcohol had inflamed, 
that they renewed this charge. They cared very little whether Gallina or hid 
blood-companion had been killed by the men before them, they fought merely 
for the pleasure of blood-spilling. Such a conflict of twelve to two was one of 
those merry bye-plays which varied the joys of debauchery, and would afford 
them foundation for bragging at the refreshment bar during the fandango. 
These men, moreover, being mongrels, hated the pure whites inveterately, and 
to exterminate them would be an excessive pleasure. 

But as such bar-room squabbles are common occurrences in the life of a 
hunter, always incurred by him when he comes to the outposts of civilisation, 
they did not daunt Oregon Oliver in the slightest degree. The storm he has 
raised by the summary correction of the spoil-feast did not make him blench. 
No more was his companion appalled. The present peril had transformed the 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


gentleman. His features beamed with that glow of ba'tle which irradiates the 
pages of Froissart when he speaks of the English knjghts travelling as far as 
Spain to war in fratricidal struggles which in no way really interested them. He 
even smiled, and aided his associate with charming readiness in his defensive 
preparations. These were neither long nor difficult to carry out. 

They merely overturned the solid table on its side, one end against a cask, the 
other against the side-wall, their backs to the rear of the den of thieves. Kneeling 
behind this barricade they were sure not to be surrounded, had enough elbow- 
play, and could await the issue complacently enough. The banditti had barked 
their shins against the table, and recoiled on being faced by the two men, 
shielded from the knee to the chin, with flashing eyes between four revolver 
muzzles. They consulted in an undertone for a few instants. 

“ They see the tables are turned indeed ! ” observed Mr. Gladsden. 

Meanwhile the cause of this disturbance, the tall varlet, had scrambled to his 
feet, clinging to the doorpost ; he was bruised all along his body by the shock, 
and he came in among his fellows limping, foaming with pain and rage, and 
aching for revenge. 

“ You are pretty mates o’ mine to shrink ! ” he sneered. “ Afeard of a couple 
of Yankees ! ” 

“ Who’s afeard ? ” retorted the precious crew, pushing one another. 

“ looks so,” went on he, with a grin of pain. “ You are ten to two, and you 
plot and plan together when I, at least, pitched into them alone. If this be not 
fear it is an extreme prudence, which is its sister. Are you not bound to avenee 
La Gallina’s d r ath ! ” 


“Yes, we are bound to avenge a comrade’s death ; but just count the shots in 
those pepper-boxes. It is not the question of our getting killed, but of smashing 
those, our enemies. We’re in a lump here, in the open, and they are covered! 
I conjecture our order of battle is very defective.” 

“ Right he is,” chorussed the fellows of this orator. 

“ \ ou are a flock of prairie hens ! Haven’t you firearms a£ well ? ” 

“ You won’t see that they have those cursed repeating rifles also at their 
backs ! Besides, these Yanks have longer heads than us. Ah, if the Captain 
were here ! He knows all the tricks of the Norte Americanos, and can match their 
cards at any game.” 

“ That’s very true ; but El Manco (the Maimed) is not at hand. He is not 
due yet. We must do our own work — so, have at them with what heart ye may I ” 
“Oh, we’re choking with our hearts, Valentacho ; but we don’t care to be 
shot down like buffalo.” 

“ Well if it comes to that— if I must show you the lead again, here 1 lo i I 
lead ; only, let’s have you stick to me.” 

“ Like wax ! lead on.” 

“ It’s understood P ” 

“ Plain as the Creed ! ” 


Then forward ! and death to the Gavachos — curse them 1 ” yelled the tall 
rogue, waving his rapier as high as the ceiling would permit. 

They all rushed forward with exceeding fury. 

Take heed! ’’ muttered Oliver; “two shots apiece, and fire low! ” 
hour shots of the revolvers stretched two Mexicans on the floor never to rise 
again ; anotner brace that had been “ winged,” removed themselves out of the 
room altogether, probably to find the nearest surgeon. But the fillip had been 
t l, flagg ' ng s PJ nt * > ,he rogues were excited by the pistol? flash and 

fnd fri J^ lr u raS Y ed0 ! 1 x le . d ’ and ‘ h< v fe " U P™ edge of the oaken rampart 
and tried to chop down the two whites within. * 


A Haver* worse than the Storm . 


7 * 


It was a horrible medley with the firearms spitting fire in all directions, as 
hands were jostled and the eager ruffians interfered with one another’s 
movements. 

Acting on Oliver’s advice, the two besieged men wasted no more powder. 
Their rampart was the higher by three or four dead bodies hanging, bent in the 
middle, over the edge, and, standing up now, they met the contestants’ machetes 
with their scarcely less long hunting-knives. 

The robbers fairly howled with impotent rage, having never met such a 
provoking resistance. Valentacho was the most persistent of any. He clung 
to the table with one hand, trying to pull it over on its top, snarling like a wild 
animal, and showering blows of the cutlass on the foe too active to receive one 
of them save on their own blades. 

“ See here ! ” cried Oliver, “ you that’s so n’isy ! Wasn’t that first lesson good 
enough ? Don’t you know I’m keeping school here ? Yes, Oregon 01. is 
the schoolmaster right down hyar in Sonora, and it looks like I’ll have to send 
you home on one e-tarnal holiday 1 ” 

The bandit ceased to yell, and, leaning forward, managed to clutch the fresaia 
(blanket) of the speaker, which he had rolled round his left arm, more Hispanico, 
and drew him towards him, in order that he might, shortening his sword, stab 
him through and through. 

“ You are a liar, dog 1 ” said he, fiercely, through his gritting teeth ; ‘ ’tis you 
who are about to die 1 ” 

With an upward sweep of his right hand, in which he had reversed his 
revolver and seized it by .the barrel, Oliver dashed the coming rapier aside, and, 
with a downward blow of the pistol thus converted into a hammer, he visited 
the Mexican’s skull so violently with a concussion to the brain that the outlaw 
let go the grasp on the blanket and of his sword, and fell back among his com- 
rades without even a groan. No ox could have been felled more swiftly. 

The defeated and horrified rabble melted away in disorder. They had had 
their dose. They would have been only too glad to leave the scene of combat, 
but for shame’s sake, and the dread of their captain not finding them at this 
tryst. 

Oliver kicked away the cask which had prevented a flank attack, stepped 
clear from the corpses and his defences, and quietly going up to the bar, behind 
which the keepers had tranquilly watched as much of the action as the smoke 
permitted, he said : 

“ Another bottle ! As for you gentecilta, clear away your dead, and sit you down 
and clear up your glasses, too. If any man goes out without finishing his liquor 
to my health, I’ll not leave a mouth on him if a rifle be any utility in my claws.” 

The cowed mob obeyed the double order grudgingly but faithfully. The 
smoke was wafted out and up the hole in the roof, which was the chimney, and 
a little order reigned in the bar-room. But still the landlord did not believe it 
healthy to make his appearance, though his place was surely here. The two 
visitors took their seats at another table, almost in the midst of the prairie 
depredators, but no one interrupted their conversation this time, and the other 
customers, without conferring with one another, soon glided out of the Rancho 
Verde, and finally all had disappeared. 

“ We’ve a clean ship, Oliver,” said Mr. Gladsden ; “ our merry associates have 
vacated this hall of rosy light.” 

“ We kin histe in our nightcaps, then,” replied the guide. “ With such a gap 
made in One-leg’s band, always provided it is his cuadrilla, we need not fear 
they will come in the night to serenade us. By the way, that endless fellow has 
left his guitar. Shall I play something skippy ?” 


7 * 


The Treasure of Pearls, 


“You can play what you please,” returned the Englishman. “Only I vote 
for a dance tune. It is my belief that we shall not want for dancers.” 

Indeed, there was a clatter of horses’ hoofs, without. 

“Correct you air, Injin! ’’said Oliver, lending his ear interestedly. “Put 
fresh cartridges in ! there seems an agreement by all hands that we shall not be 
let sleep in peace this night ! ” 


CHAPTER XVII. 


THE PUREST OF PEARLS. 

By the noise of the cavalcade it could be calculated to be numerous. 

Uncle Sweet Potato, who had so completely kept to himself whilst the scuffle 
had lasted, now appeared suddenly at the ranch door, with the alacrity of a man 
close to whose rear a red-hot branding-iron was being approached. At the same 
time, the riders stopped their horses there. 

Tio Camote had closed the thick door smartly, and held a colloquy through a 
small wicket in its centre, in a language which was not known to Mr. Gladsden. 
On the other hand, Oliver had started as the dialogue progressed, and bending 
towards his companion, said in his ear : 

“Indians! hostile Indians, Apaches ! —Mi mbres Apaches!” he concluded, as 
the speech revealed more and more particularities. “ All men — they are ‘ bad ’ — 
I can smell they are charcoal’d — blackened for war ! I tell ’er what, mighty 
slim chance but in strategem agen sich a powerful squad to whop. That’s the 
voice of an old acquaintance — big chief — ah, he’s head chief now! We hev 
swapped hosses, an’ we’ve exchanged shots, but never draw’d blood, an’ we may 
be considered neutrals on Spanish territory, but all the same, be on your guard. 
That fool is too much afeard on ’em not to let ’em in. Our hosses are not 
worth a red cent’s purchase a piece, wuss luck ! Those ’Paches are as fond of 
hoss-flesh as a Spanish gal of peanut-candy. Still, if in a wuss squeeze than 
afore, you reckon on me pulling you out clean.” 

“ I am puzzled again. Is the Indian a friend or foe ? ” 

“ Both or neither. But, lor’, in the wildest parts, I have gone to sleep with 
my heels to the same fire as my deadliest enemy, and woke up — well, I still 
live. It’s ’cordin’ to sarkimstances ; and this here is a pertickler sarkimstance 
— crammed with liveliness to the lid, like a tin o’ them Italian sprats.” 

“ Serious ! worse than before.” 

“ Jess so. But don’t show any surprise ; keep your tongue out of the tongue- 
fire, and don’t gainsay me in any way.” 

“I’m your puppet again.” 

“ You’ll not repent it.” .. h » 

“ I am convinced of that.” 

“ H “ sh > right tharj He’s going to let them in. And they’re big fool Iniin 
enough to git off their hosses, wharon they’m as easy of movement as an eap-'le 
and come down to common ground, whar they waddle like geese. These hoss 
Ingins are no beauties, seen so, hobbling up to a bar in a doggery, but they air 

fond o’ white man’s pison, and no two ways about that.” J 


The Purest of Pearls . 


73 


Indeed, Camote, who probably was not insured and preferred running the 
risk of being butchered in his house to being certainly baked when it should be 
fired over his head for his resistance to the command to open, bowed in the 
chiefs of the new customers’ party, and their body-guard. 

These six or eight red men silently placed themselves on the floor by one of 
the tables in a squatting position near the door, pulled out every man a toma- 
hawk-pipe which they filled with morrichee, or sacred tobacco, which proved 
that they were members of an upper class, past masters in the council lodges, 
lit up and set to smoking, without any observations, though the pools of blood, 
and the shattered and bullet-perforated furniture, revealed that there had 
recently been a disturbance there. They even betrayed no token of having 
perceived the two other persons at their table, and the men behind the bar, who 
were exchanging dubious, uneasy glances, whilst they felt gooseflesh under their 
scalp. 

But the American knew that a secret, quick glance had “ counted” them, for 
he whispered : 

“ We’re reckoned up, and they don’t stomach our looks. Tell ’ee, sir, they 
don’t like close shooting and tough chawing.” 

After a few moments, one of the Indians smote the table with his hatchet- 
pipe. Tio Camote ran over to the spot, with the most obsequious of hotel- 
keepers’ smiles on his lips. 

“ Heap big drink !” 

“ Mezcal ! ’’ uttered the savages. 

“Si, si, si, Senyor Camicho ” (for cazique, Aztec for chieftain), was the 
celeritous answer, as the ranchero hastened to set half-a-dozen bottles of spirit 
and some horn cups on the bench, to be nearer their reach than the table, before 
them. 

They filled up and drank with a gusto that proved they had overcome the 
counsels of their wise men not to let the fire-water be their tempter. They 
resumed smoking and the puffs crossed one another in the dreariest silence. Yet 
this silence was more appalling than the riot of the late brawlers in the Green 

These Apache chiefs were attired much like their leader and resembled him in 
build, being picked warriors, or rather, more probably, chiefs who had attained 
rank for fighting and marauding alone. They were large men for Apaches, and 
but for their legs being bowed by life on horseback from boyhood up, would have 
overtopped six feet. They were well built too, and their features not ignoble 
though rapacity moulded the prominent traits, as well as could be ascertained 
beneath the streaks of grey, blue, yellow and red plastered on in accordance with 
laws or convention, in what space was left by a prodigious smearing with the 
war-colour in pre-eminence, black. As there were no signs of mourning, they 
had so far been perfectly successful in their incursion into Sonora, and had not 
lost a man. Their large dark eyes, .deep and gloomy, sparkled now and anon 

Taking one as an example, he wore his hair gathered up so as to form a 
of pad on the top of his head, a very good idea for defence ; some pendent plaits 
were not his own hair and had buffalo hair twined in them, too; to each was 
hung at the end some little charm, pebble fangs, precious stone in the rough, gold 
or silver nugget, and so on. A long line of eagle and vulture feathers, varied in 
hue, possiblv dyed, stood up on his head and out from him Hght down h^ back, 
whence the line flowed free quite to his neck. Through the actual top-knot, 
long eagle feather, in special signification of commandership, was s.uck 
lantingly. This one in particular whom we are depicting, had mounted a pair 


74 


The Treasure of Pearls , 


of buffalo horns adorned with ribbons and human hair, very fair or bleached, 
not unlike the headgear of the ancient Britons. Being out on the war-path, he 
had laid aside collar of claws, porcupine quills and teeth, and bracelets, so that 
the war-jacket of deerskin, beautifully dressed, gathered in at the waist by a 
simple thong, looked plain indeed. His buckskin breeches were ornamented 
with embroidery, and his stockings of American make were decorated similarly by 
the patient squaws. His moccasins were bright with beadwork and quite clear 
of entanglement, though it seemed otherwise, from the artfully arranged knee- 
knot of dangling feathers and animal tails. 

For weapons they had the tomahawk-pipe of bronze, and scalping-knife, one 
or two bows and arrows, the lustre of the black strings showing human hair was 
twisted in them as a trophy ; the guns were not very good, being cast-off army 
pieces, for which they had powder-horns and bullet bags, quite old-fashioned. 
Their spears were left without ; they had raw hide whips hanging by a loop to the 
wrist, and ornamented usefully with a war-whistle for the issue of commands, 
more clearly sowided and distantly heard than by voice, a system known among 
the Southern Indians from time out of mind though only of recent years adopted 
by European armies. 

Strange and picturesque to the Englishman, though their odour of smoke and 
rancid grease and horses would have been less unendurable in the open air, 
Gladsden owned that they were manly fellows enough who inspired reasonable 
respect and almost consideration. 

Unfortunately for appearances, whatever their nation may have been in ancient 
days, now these Apaches are about the most plundeiing, murderous, ferocious 
rovers of the South West, especially hating all the whites. Liars and thieves, they 
are a scourge who must be crushed out by the civilisation to which they will not 
truly bow the knee. 

Whilst these unpleasant guests smoked and drank, our friends pretended to 
doze. Camote would have liked to have shut up shop ; but he was not the man, 
with only two assistants, to undertake to clear out the horde before he retired to 
his virtuous pillow. The mere prospective of a wrangle with these ugly 
customers made his hair imprudently rise like a cockatoo’s crest. He sat up on 
his counter, with dangling legs that swung in concord with his agitation, with 
folded arms to look undaunted, but not losing sight of the reds. He smoked 
cigarette after cigarette, and gulped large draughts of pulque by way of 
consolation and to nourish his patience. 

faeanwhfle the night advanced ; the stars were paling away in the celestial 
depths, and the moon “ downing.” It was nearly three in the morning, and yet the 
humbler Indians and the numerous horses without hardly betrayed their proximity 
by a sound. For upwards of three hours the Apaches had gone on smoking and 
imbibing without their hard heads giving way or any tongue being loosened. 

All of a sudden the chief, who wore the odd diadem of horns, shook the ashes 
out of his pipe on his left thumb-nail, and spoke in a loud enough voice, though 
he still stared into vacancy. At the words, the American ranger started slightly, 
opened his eyes fully, and in a measure made a nod of courtesy. 

“ My brother the Ocelot,” said the chief, “ seems to be pretty much worn out 
to sleep so soundly. Were his eyes not sealed with sleep, he must have taken 
notice that a friend has come into the lodge of the ‘ Spanish Dog,’ and has 
seated himself not far from the Hunter of the North, along with several braves 
of his grand nation.” 

“ Resting the sight ain’t sleeping, not by a long heap ! No, Tiger Cat, the 
Ocelot never owns on to being wore out, I opine. If the Ocelot wa’n’t staring 
at the chiefs, 'tis jest ’cause he has seen ’em, most on ’em, afore now, ginerally 


The Purest of Pearls. 


75 


when thar was smoke in the air, blood drops as plenty as rain up North, and 
ha’r in rich plenty — you could stuff a buffalo hide plump out. The Ocelot knows 
his place in this part of the kentry — he don’t shove his claws into no chief’s mush- 
and-milk. He soit o’ keeps low till a question aimed at him, hits him fa’r and 
squar’ ; that’s the kind of ginuine Ocelot, this Ocelot air.” 

W‘jgh ! the hunter speaks well,” remarked the Apache, wagging his head 
with apparent satisfaction, li there’s no split in his tongue. Bueno — good l ” 

“ No, sir ! ’tis a straight, whole, single tongue.” 

“ The Wacondah has opened a slit in his bosom for the smoke of his heart to 
steal foith pure. His sayings fall sweet and soft on the ear of the Mimbres 
Apaches, for they are the words of a friend. Let the Ocelot talk on. It is so 
long since the Mimbres heard the music of his voice that the papoose that was 
at the back of the squaw now stands alone, so high,” — making an imaginary line 
in the air with a wave of the pipe-hatchet, — “and plays at shooting with bow and 
arrow at the dogs. But his whole heart has not sprung forward to shake hands 
with his brother. His face is carved out of white flint. Is there no smile ? Is 
he not glad to see the best warriors on the Apache roving-ground ? Is he not 
surprised to see them here ? ” 

“ Considering, chief,” returned Oregon 01., nudging with his knee that of 
the Englishman under the table, quite imperceptibly, “ considering the Ocelot 
knew the Apaches were ‘ warm ’ round here, and that a call was down in the pro- 
gramme of the dance, the Ocelot has no grounds for opening his eyes any wider.” 

“ U-wagh ! ” ejaculated the chief, evincing some astonishment himself, “ the 
Apache chiefs were expected by the great pale hunter? ” 

“ They jess was,” answered the other laconcially. 

“ Arrrh 1 ” sighed the Indian with pretended awe and an insinuating smile, 
“ the hunter has met the Book medicine-men (preachers, missionaries) in the 
land of the beaver and white bear — he has been initiated into their lodge — he 
has a heap big-medicine, he knows everything.” 

“ The chief is making merry, he is no longer straight with his friend. 
Whether I carry good or bad medicine, it don’t help me much in this nick, as 
my brother ought to know.” 

“ The Tiger Cat has been * playing — ,’ with the Spaniards ! ” said the Apache, 
with an emphasis on the English word he used, which caused the hotel keeper to 
shrink, “ and a cloud has settled on his mind. He cannot make out what the 
white hunter is driving at. He looks. He see Nada — nothing.” 

“ If one of them stirs a finger towards me, shoot into the mass,” whispered 
Oliver, rising leisurely, to his comrade. 

He left the table, and strode up to the Indians, among whom he stopped, his 
back to the edge of the table they disdained, leaning on his rifle, of which the 
beauty and value (for a breech-loader is a miracle to their eyes) made their 
nervous tongues lick their thin upper lip and thick lower one like a snake when 
the game is presented. 

“ See here, chief,” said he, “ the Ocelot has hearing as fine as they make ’em, 
and the faintest sounds tell their story in his ear. Did I not know you and 
your cavalyada were down to’rds the Smoking Mountain, and have I not heard 
the amble of those mules out thar, a-toting a litter between them ? In that litter 
is a white woman. I’m atter her, for her family’s sake — what’s the price of the 
captive ? ” 

The Indians exchanged a look of amazement, but they were not disconcerted. 
Indeed, Tiger Cat answered without wincing : 

“ Who can make (dead) meat of the white hunter ? Beside the Ocelot, the 
Tiger Cat is a prairie-cricket.” 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


76 


“ Speak out plain, then, chief. If you have the woman along with you, 
guarded by your soldiers (the young warriors) so carefully, it is to claim much 
price. What’s the figure P ” 

“ The Ocelot has all the wit of the pale faces, all the cunning of the red men. 
The Tiger Cat does not debate. He has a captive of worth — ay, ‘the purest of 
pearl ’ is worth her weight in dressed buffalo robes. Hut the prize is his. Why 
should the Ocelot hunger for the prey of the Tiger Cat ? ” 

“ You’ll jess let me back out about now, chief,” said Oregon Oliver, negli- 
gently. “ If we cannot trade, we’ll take the back paths apart from one another, 
a?nd no bad blood.” 

He half turned as if to go away, but not without a glance of sympathy in 
bitterness at the certainly strange palanquin, draped with Navajo waterproof 
blankets, suspended elastically between two mules, now visible to him without. 

But the wily redskin was evidently perplexed. The guides who have intimate 
relations with the United States army always are looked upon peculiarly by the 
Indians who have been thrashed by the blue cape-coats. He detained the hunter 
by gently plucking at his blanket. 

“ The Ocelot bounds away too quickly,” he observed, as if offended. “ Has 
anger flamed up between us brothers ? ” 

“ Ne’er a flame,” replied the other, who was far from seeking a quarrel just 
then and there, with such overpowering odds in' his disfavour, “but when we 
can’t trade, let’s sleep on it ; we’ll see it sure ’nuff, how the dicker promises.” 

“ The white hunter has a stranger friend with him,” remarked the Apache, 
with the abrupt change of conversation which is natural to men of no great 
conversational powers, and perhaps to let his interlocutor see that the previous 
subject was exhausted ; “ he is no hunter; I daresay he is a chief of many gold 
buttons.” 

He alluded to the quantity of eagle buttons which adorn the uniform of the 
United States officers, who, of course, dress up as if for parade, in “talks” with 
the savages. 

“You are out thar’, chief ; he is no friend of mine, no military ossifer; only 
some traveller coming over the mountains to get into Greaser land.” 

“ And you are his guide ? ” 

“ Who says so ? ” 

“ The Tiger Cat’s eyes are sharp ; he sees what goes on over the prairie and 
plains. Did not the hunter’s ten-shoot gun (he could express only so many units 
by twice throwing up his extended hand) speak, and some mixed-blooded dog 
bite the river bank ? ” 

“ It is so! I struck a coup (French Canadian hunter word for a stroke of war, 
a blow). It’s nothing to crow over; it’s nothing to cache. When a mosquito 
stints, you slap, don’t you ? same when a mestizo buzzes close ; you can have his 
topknot as much as you like. But why,’’ added he, repeating the other's phrase, 
“ why does the Tiger Cat hanker after the Ocelot’s dead ? ” 

“ The Tiger Cat kills his own game. What he says, he says to let the pa’e 
face hunter see that he has eyes upon the land and the river. Now, ” he con- 
cluded, releasing the flap of the blanket, “ my brother can go, and sleep, if he be 
ready to drop.” 

Oliver went back to his seat, carelessly enough to all appearances. 

“ What’s that about a woman,” inquired Mr. Gladsden, eagerly in a low voice. 

“A guess of mine that hit to the centre spot. Those red devils have some- 
thing in a hoss-barrow of which they are taking pertickler care, and they wouldn’t 
show her up here, so I guessed it war a captive. Now, the captive they spare 
and tender ‘ so fash ’ (fashion), you bet yer life, she’s something first-quality and 


The Purest of Pearls. 


77 


all the hair on. Besides, you hear him call her 4 La Perla Purissima,’ and that’s 
the name you don’t hear every Spanish gal wear. Though, I will say this for 
them, that where I durn a Mexican man half a hundred times for bad gifts, I 
bless a Mexican female critter once at least. The one’s a tough knot, not wuth 
the burning, and won’t make saddle-tree, picket-peg, or good arrow-wood, but 
the gals, most offen, is good stuff, and I’m a-telling you.” 

“A captive, a young girl, fair, pure; oh heaven 1 in the power of these 
demons ! ” groaned Gladsden. 

“ Don’t shake the table ! I’ve done all my uttermost : I made him think her 
family are already on her trail, that she’s worth a hu >e ransom. If they’ve 
protected her so far, by the biggest of marvels in my ’sperience, why not a little 
longer; tell we kin git clar of this infarnal ’tanglement, and can swoop on em 
at our advantage ? Daring is a prime hoss to mount, to show off afore the 
crowd in front of the hotel, but give me patience when I've got to hunt the red 
scalpers. Patience, sir ! we’ve got fifteen shots to spare in each of our Win- 
chesters, and the extra one in afore them ; to say nothing of our five-shooters. 
Oh,” he added, with a bitter and contemptuous look at the Mexicans, “ if there 
was only enough manhood for one in them three, durn their greasy pelts ! ” 

Unfortunately, granting that they overcame the Apache head-men within the 
four brick walls, there were many wi hout who could set fire to the ranche and 
consume them like toads in a forest conflagration, while they would be as far 
from rescuing the invisible captive as ever. 

All fell into silence again, save that the three Mexicans, nestling towards one 
another, ventured to converse in an undertone. The Apaches continued to 
imbibe and smoke their gleaming hatchet -calumets. This dreary and onerous 
situation lasted for all of an hour after the hunter’s parley with the red men, till 
they had finished their iiquor and let their pipes die out. 

The pale dawning light not merely appeared outside, but began to change the 
colour of the glow from the nearly exhausted lamps. At the same time the 
fresh morning air began battling with the fumes of spirits and tobacco. 

Suddenly the similarly silent Indians on the exterior awoke. There were 
cautious signals exchanged; the horses, too, participated in the growing agita- 
tion, and shifted uneasily. 

Two Apaches appeared at the doorway and gave an alarm to the chiefs, who 
had pricked up their ears, but only then deigned to rise at full length. They 
spoke together. All but two left the house, and almost instantly a figure draped 
in blankets was dragged over the sill. Flinging off the hands clutching her 
wrists with an indignant outburst which made the wraps to fall, the white men 
and the Mexicans beheld a graceful apparition unveiled. 

It was quite a young girl for age, but being precocious, like all tropical 
creatures, a woman in development, she looked only too lovely in such a 
miserably unfit scene, fragile yet exuberant, with fine, tiny hands and feet, and 
narrow waist, black eyes, fair creamy skin and carnation lips; her very step 
seemed not to press the ground. In her ears and around her neck were pearls 
of unwonted dimensions ; but it was evidently her character and her beauty 
which had won her the title of “ La Perla Purissima.” 

At the same moment a distant fusillade was audible. 

“Fol ow, and do as I do !” shouted Oliver, taking his decision with that 
swiftness of the prairie expert, which is, perhaps, the predominant trait that most 
bewilders the savages, trained to do no act without the warrant of magical mani- 
festations. 

With all possible speed he flung himself forward and dashed the Indian to the 
right of him as far aloof as the walls, at the same time throwing his left arm in 


78 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


a backhanded way around the Mexican senyorita’s waist so that, in drawing her 
forward, she was immediately pushed behind him. 

Gladsden — on whom the sight of the lovely girl had had a profound effect- 
had also sprung forward, and not exactly imitating the hunter, pushed with his 
gun muzzle at a second Apache, and, whether intentionally or not, firing at the 
same instant, a hole was actually blown through the wretch, who leaped up in 
the air convulsively and so received a terrible cut of the hatchet of Tiger Cat, 
aimed at his slayer. 

“ You’ve made your coo 1 ! now kick the rest of them right clean out ! ” roared 
Oliver, stooping to avoid a pistol shot, and, in rising with a heavy stool in his 
hand, breaking the collar bone of the man who had shot. “ Now thar, Caballeros 
of the bluest blood,” he shouted derisively, “ do something, only do something, if 
you want to sleep another night in your hide ! ” 

But already the two remaining Apaches had recoiled into the doorway, en- 
cumbered with the dead body of their brother whose scalp they wished to save, 
and Tiger Cat alone really confronted the whites. 

This seeing, Tio Camote broke the spell of terror that had converted him into 
a mere statue on his counter, and snatching a cutlass from between two casks, 
smacked the boards with it to make an encouraging noise, calling out to his aids : 

“ Upon them, and second those valourous foreigners ! ” 

Tiger Cat, enraged at the captive being so swiftly snatched out of his power, 
levelled a gun at the poor frightened thing over Oliver’s shoulder. But already 
Gladsden had the Apache on the flank, and being too near him to use his rifle 
as a club, shifted it into his left hand, and dealt the redskin a terrible fisticuff. 
Staggered at this unusual blow from a weapon not in Indian war practice, the 
chief reeled and fell into the embrace of the white hunter 

“ Whoopee,” he cried, “ I hev the varmint in my hug. Shut the door, you 
dog-goned greasers, and pile every mortal thing agen it ! ” 

He hugged the chief so tightly that his breast bone cracked, and his arms, 
pinioned to his side, were numbed to the very finger, so that he let the smoking 
gun drop. 

“ Just pick his we’pins-out of his girdle, and mind that pison hatchet-pipe, the 
least scratch means death ! ” said the ranger. 

The Mexicans, inspired by this successful skirmish, had banged the solid door 
to, and added a table and three full barrels to its fastenings. 

“ Pooty ! ” exclaimed the man from Oregon at last drawing breath. “ Let me 
have a yard or two of leather rope, d’ye hyar ? ” raising his voice, as there was a 
rising din without and a chopping on the door. 

Presently the chief was securely bound and flung down on the ground where 
he was attached to the ring of a trap-door leading to a small wine vault, or 
rather cave into which, to presume from the air of them, the three Mexicans 
would have liked to creep. 

The external noise ceased. There were but two or three sharp whistles of 
command, and a gentle creeping away of the troop, as it were. 

“ Some enemy of theirs exchanged shots with their pickets,” interpreted 
Oliver, “ and as he is in force and resolutely coming on, they have gone into 
* cover.’ If they are the pirates of the prairie, we are no better off than before, 
but we are ‘ all hunk,’ quite safe, sereno, missee,” he said, turning kindly to the 
young girl, “ if they are Mexican soldiers or your friends.” 

She had joined her hands fervently ; then, at the mention of friends, more 
clearly comprehending her comparative safety, she uttered her thanks in a 
torrent of eloquence, and the sweetest voice in the world. All the time of her 
speaking, stray shots punctuated her flow of gratitude, so to say. Undoubtedly 


T.ie Purest of Pearls. 


10 


Oliver was right ; some foes of the Apaches were giving them quite enough 
occupation to prevent them attempting to learn the fate even of their principal chief. 
“ Yes, they are my friend*, my father, too, oh, I am sure my father is at the 

I head of them ? ” cried the young girl, forgetting all her captivity, and its igno- 
minies in her revulsion to joy. Open the door to them.” 

“Stop! nothing of the sort,” interposed the hunter, peremptorily. “Those 
are not the old muskets of peons, nor the captured French rifles of the Mexican 
soldiery. Bide! bide and we shall bimeby see about welcoming our deliverers.” 

And whilst Gladsden sought to console the little beauty whose face had become 
gloomy again, the hunter began to scold the Mexicans for their cowardice. 

“ But,” observed Gladsden more and more perplexed as he examined the 
young lady, “ La Perla Purissima, while very charming, is not a name. Pray 
who are you, senorita ? ” 

“ But,” said she with a pout, “ La Perla is my name, the truth, whilst Pur- 
issima is the flattery. I was christened La Perla from the main incident in my 

father’s early life ” 

“ Indeed, indeed! and your father? ” 

“ You are, insooth, a stranger, senyor, not to recognise the daughter of the very 
richest haciendero and proprietor in all Upper Sonora. I am, senyor, Perla 
Dolores de Bustamente y Miranda! ” 

“ Dolores !” roared our Englishman, with the delightful leap of the puzzled 
brain when a solution is afforded. “ Why I knew you all along by the likeness 
to your mother 1 ” 

And enfolding her in his arms he gave her an affectionate embrace, only a 
little less painful than that which had rendered the Tiger Cat hors de combat , 
and kissed her on both cheeks, whilst to her further astonishment, tears streamed 
from his eyes. 

“ Dolores ! my dear little girl,” continued Mr. Gladsden, when he could 
speak tolerably calmly, “did you never hear your father and mother mention 
an Englishman? but there, I am sure they put my name into your prayers, when 
you were yet in our cradle ! ” 

“ The Englishman ! oh, the English Caballero!” cried the daughter of the 
Pearl-fisher, clapping her hands together in enthusiastic glee. “Yes, Don Jorge 
Federico.” 

“ George, it is ! how trippingly my name comes off your honey tongue.” 

“ That is easily accounted for, senyor, as it is my brother’s.” 

“ What ! you have a brother ! and they named their boy after me ! Well, 
upon my soul ! Here, you Oliver, if you don’t take back your general denuncia- 
tion of the Mexican race, we are no longer friends. At least, gratitude is not so 
ephemeral among them. So, Don Benito never has forgotten his old comrade ? ” 
The young lady touched the pearls in her ear and at her neck significantly to 
imply that the story of the filibuster’s treasure was one familiar to her. 

“ You are one of our saints, senyor ? ” 

“ Sit down, on my knee ! Heaven bless you ; I have children of my own, 
too ! And tell me all about your home, your excellent parents, and your good, 
brave, handsome brother. I’ll wager a fortune he is brave and handsome.” 

“Hush!” interrupted the hunter. "Draw the girl out of a line with that 
wicket in the door. Some one has ridden right up to it, jingling with we’pins. 
More war talk l ” 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


OUT AND AWAY. 

At this same instant a bang on the oak from a large pistol butt — so high up that 
it revealed it was held in the hand of a giant or a man on horseback, who had 
his reasons for not dismounting — fairly shook the mas-dye door. 

“ Landlord, go challenge the new comer,” said Oliver. 

Tio Camote, however reluctant, was forced to obey. A second blow quickened 
his step, and he even smiled as if the peculiarity of its stioke were a well-known 
signal. He, therefore, opened the trap pretty trustfully. 

A long hook-nose, scarred in the middle, and a pair of gleaming eyes in a 
rather bloated face appeared at the little square hole. 

“ It is I, the Captain,” said a harsh voice with a shrill twang, testily. “ We 
have brushed the brownskins afar, and we want refreshment.” 

“ The Captain,” cried Sweet Potato, falling back. 

41 Well,” said Oliver, “ who’s the Captain ? ” 

“ Pedrillo! El Manco ! ” breathed the innkeeper, in awe. 

c ‘ Speak up, you ass ! ” 

“ Captain Pedrillo el Manco,” repeated the bar tender. 

“Oh, One-leg Pete,” said the hunter, with as much scorn as they displayed 
apprehension and respect. “ Don’t let me see e’en a one of ye touch that door.” 

He turned to Gladsden and the young Mexican, who was pale again, but 
courageous. 

“You hev seen that the ’Paches even kin spare a young woman of beauty 
when their greed is keen. But, I tell ’ee, sir, I would rather all was back where 
we began to play the game, and yon helpless redskin up in arms afore us, than 
have this poor lady in the power of that villain who waits without, and is likely 
to wait till doomsday before I let him in. He’s cruel, merciless, wuss than a 
Digger Injin, and words can paint no blacker ! But he is a fool ! he thinks he and 
his herd have driven away the poison-hatchets when their first chief is here ! If 
the Injin will forgive this humiliation, which I doubt, hang me but I’ll cut his 
thongs, set him on his feet agen, and we’ll charge this scum of the brimstone 
pot between us and the Apaches. 

“ First, let those greasers know that if they breathe a signal to their kindred 
thieves, you will silence the spokesman for ever.” 

“ One moment,” said Gladsden. “ This captain with the seared hook-nose. — 
tell me more of him. In the same way that this young lady’s face called up the 
figures of the past most sweet in my memory, that peculiar phiz reminded me of 
the most disagreeable scoundrel I ever came athwart the foot of. What’s he 
like ? ” 

“ A hardened man-devil. He lost a leg, so that he always sticks in the 
saddle.” 

“ A leg gone ! how, how ? ” 

“ Chawed off by an alligator in some Texan bieyoo (bayou), so they give out.’* 

“ I have it ! it is an old acquaintance 1 only, he lost his leg by a snark bite, 
I presume.” 

“ All's one. Well, if you ever knew him, then you knew the biggest scamp 
unhung ! And now keep those cowards silent. If we do not answer the bandit, 
he will think Camote was pushed forward as a decoy by some Apaches within 
hyar, and will be dumfounded.” 


Out and Away. 


81 


After a pause the knocking at the door of the ranche was resumed, but as in 
one of the pauses, the angry solicitor of admission heard the “ hee, hee, ha, 
yah,” of an Indian song, due to the imitative skill of Oregon Oliver, he with- 
drew. 

Taking advantage of this lull in the attack on the portals, the hunter went 
back to the prostrate Indian chief, who had been chewing a bitter cud, and 
squatted down on his hams in the Indian mode, at his head. 

“ Now, then, Cat, what have you got on your notched stick (record) to 
tell off?” 

The Apache looked up out of his indifferent and impassible demeanour. 

“The white ranker is a great chief,” said he. “Not many would have 
snatched the pearl from among the head-chiefs of the poison hatchets, whose 
slightest blow is death. I say, he is a warrior. He has come to hear me sing 
my death-song ; not to gabble to him like an old squaw. I am ready to begin.” 

“ Partly you’re correct, chief. I am not come to chatter like the mocking bird. 
But I prefer hearing your song of triumph to that of death md mourning. 
Have you heard the voice of the wolf-with-the-leg-off at the door of this mud 
lodge? Do you not know the voice of that dog, the captain of Salteadores ? ” 

“Yes, the Tiger Cat has killed many of the foxes that follow that Ladrone 
(thief), by walking upon them ! ” answered the Apache disdainfully. 

“ To the point, then. If I free you hand and foot, will you lend us your hand 
to help us shake the ground clear of these varmint ? I’ll give you a revolver to 
boot ! and, more, you shall have one of these broken guns (the repeating rifles 
which bend at the barrel-end) which speaks all one’s fingers times handrunning, 
with ammunition to feed her up as long as you run buffalo on the plains,” 

It was an enormous babe. But the Apache was true to his wounded pride, 
and his inveterate hatred of the whites. 

“ The warriors that swing the poison hatchets,” he replied, “ lie wait in all the 
thickets around about the forest. In a little while they will fall on the Spanish, 
and then they will hear their chief singing his deati.-song, mingled with their 
whoop of triumph.” 

“All right,” said the other, rising. “ I thought it neighbourly to give you a 
chance. Sing away to your own pitch-pipe.” 

He went over to Gladsden, who leant on the counter, whilst Donna Perla, on 
the other side of the room, contemplated the scene curiously. The discovery 
that one of the strangers was the hero of her childhood’s romance, had filled her 
with complete confidence, and she thought no more of prayer. 

“ Tiger Cat is a stubborn knot,” said Oliver. “ I can’t squeeze anything out’n 
him. He’s never spared any one. and when we quit this house I propose to set 
fire to it over his head. He has burned many a Christian alive, and it’s sauce 
for the goose to roast him, too.” 

He said this so naturally that Gladsden knew he was not threatening wantonly, 
and so firmly that he forbore to argue with him. 

“ I am quite right in saying that the Apaches will never leave this place till 
they know the fate of their chief. They will soon attack the robbers. When 
they close we will sally out, trust to luck to seize three hosses for ourselves and 
the little donna, or to reach cover. At the last moment, since Tio Camote has 
been false and useless to me, I shall broach a cask or two, which will make a 
glorious bonfire, and the Apaches will only have their chief in a puchero (stew), 
with mezeal sauce ! ” 

Nature now clamoured for sleep and food. Oliver seemed able to do without 
the former, but he never refused solid sustenance when available, like all the 
wanderers whose life is an irregular alternation of feasts and fasts. 


82 


The Treasure of Pea >7 


■ ■ - — . , . -1 

Camote produced some sausage and corn cakes, as weli as deer meat, of 
which Donna Perla partook. Gladsden and she dozed off, neither of them 
heeding the continual popping of shots at long range between the Apaches and 
the robbers. At about eleven o’clock, when the heat was perceptible in the 
closed-in room wi: hout large windows or other proper vent than the narrow 
smoke-hole aloft, Oliver made a sign for attention. The landlord was eating 
and drinking noisily near the Apache prisoner, tantalising him with all a 
coward’s cruelty. His two aids had disappeared under the counter, asleep 
deeply, if their mellifluous nasal breathing afforded a sure indication. 

At the back of the ranche there was audible a scratching at the ground. Some 
living thing was trying to burrow into the house. At the same time the fusil- 
lade of the Indians assumed a more regular form. Under cover of the guns the 
bowmen had advanced, and the twang of the string once or twice came to the 
ear to prove that they had pushed on near the dwelling. 

It was provoking to see nothing of the skirmish, protracted vexatiously, like 
all such warfare. 

Suddenly Oliver took up a large empty cask and placed it on the counter. 

“ Keep watch thar, whar the critter is boring, and blow out the brains of any 
head that presents itself, for we have none but enemies hyar.” 

He jumped on the counter, clambered upon the barrels, and with his hunting- 
knife proceeded to make a gap in the roof. When the sky appeared there, he 
enlarged the hole and venturesomely pulled himself up through it, crawling down 
on the flat roof. It was composed of sods, among which stray seeds had sprouted. 

All the field, hitherto one of conjecture, was exposed to his experienced view. 
After one sweep of his vision, he came down to the floor, and relieved Glads- 
den’s anxiety which had sprung up the moment he was left entirely alone for 
the first time since they quitted El Paso. 

“ They are all at hide-and-seek,” he said, with a chuckle. “ They do not 
make the bark fly (cut the skin) once in a twenty shoots ! It’s tie and tie in 
such shooting — why did their pap trust them with firearms ? Ne’erless, the 
’Pach air working to get into the ranche, and they will rush the greasers back. 
One-leg has ridden off and hidden, I guess. I can’t see his hoss nowhar. As 
for the cattle of the Ingins, they are in two caballadoes — one yonder a good 
piece, and t’other nearer at hand. We kin strike for them with some chance. 
There’s on’y young men guarding them — and we’re good for six a piece sick ! 
Wrap the little Senyorita up thick, mind, so she may not be hurled by a flying 
bullet, and we’ll shine out galorious when we make our break out. When I say 
‘ Out ! ’ out we git ! ” 

While the Englishman arranged the blankets and buffalo hides of the fallen 
Apaches as bucklers about Donna Perla, the hunter went to the back of the 
room where the scratching had changed to the scooping out of earth ; a piece of 
stone had been substituted for the scalp-knife. 

Oliver, though time was so precious, waited patiently at the edge of the floor 
and walls. At last, the earth of the former moved as if a mole was making 
its tunnel, and then a brown hand emerged from the crumbling clods of packed 
mud. On that hand the hunter’s knife descended and severed two fingers as it was 
instantly withdrawn. The savage had the immense self-control not to utter a 
sound of pain, in shame at having put his hand so incautiously into the trap. 

“ He will trouble no more,” said Oliver, wiping the knife on the leg of Uncle 
Potato’s breeches as the nearest rag. “ At least not before we will git out of 
the way to receive him.’* 

He went across the room, and, this time, removing the barricade, boldly 
applied his eye to the wicket. 


Out and Away. 


S3 


“ Now’s the time,” said he, instantly. 

In fact a volley and the hustling of darts and arrows passed the very door, 
followed by a rush of softly-shod feet as the Apaches at last charged the 
Mexicans. 

“ Out ! ” shouted Oliver, flinging the door open. “ And you come, too, unless 
you like to be boiled in your own spirits.” 

For with one kick beating in a full cask, he fired the pouring alcohol with the 
nearest lamp, and pushed Gladsden and the daughter of Don Benito out of the 
door. A vast sheet of flame rose in their rear, and while Camote leaped 
through it, a fearful explosion in that circumscribed apartment denoted that 
another cask had burst, and was contributing to the flames. The innkeeper’s 
assistants were unable to pass the burning fluid, and their appeals for help made 
the pinioned warrior smile with fiendish glee. 

He began his death-song in a strong voice, though the blazing liquor, red, 
violet, and blue, gradually rolled towards him in his helpless state, with little or 
no smoke to muffle the rays. 

Through half-a-dozen stragglers the three fugitives made their way, the hunter 
literally bearing them down before his rush, whilst the Englishman was as little 
impeded by half carrying the Mexican maiden on his left arm. However, the 
cluster of horses was reached, held in the usual manner by all the bridles being 
passed over one, which two youthful warriors, who had probably never fleshed 
the scalping-knife, were chafing at being detained there to hold. Besides them 
a stalwart Indian, whose flattened features hinted at the admixture of African 
blood, was on guard. Luckily he had fired all but his last shot in the skirmish- 
ing, and he had only one arrow left in hand. With that he sprang forward to 
meet the flying trio, using it as a stabbing weapon. 

Generously renouncing the use of his firearms, with that sometimes imprudent 
pride of the Caucasian who loves to win at fair play, the hunter flew at him with 
merely his own steel blade. 

Whilst Gladsden smote the two striplings to the right and left, and was 
choosing two of the startled and frightened horses for the girl and himself, Oliver 
was engaged in a terrible, deadly, and pitiless combat with his sworn enemy. 
They had grappled one another with veritable hooks of steel, and sought mutually 
to overthrow and stab. Their eyes flashed fire, they wasted their breath in taunts 
and revelations of the many deeds of mischief and death which they had respec- 
tively wrought among their opposing people, till their bated breath came but 
feebly through their grinding teeth. But for their speech in broken accents, 
they were scarcely human — mere wild beasts bent on rending and tearing one 
another till “ the heart was bare.” 

“ Oh, you air Mr. Rough-on-the-Herdsman, you air ? ” hissed Oregon Oliver, 
tightening a hug which the grizzly would not have disdained to borrow. “ Well, 
Mr. Death-to-the-Cowboys, how like you that? You’ve ‘ rubbed out ’ three 
solitary trappers, ha’ you ? How’s that for a rub ? — and that, and, still again, 
that 1 ” And hurling the wretch to the earth under the curveting mustangs’ 
unshod hoofs, he nearly beat the last breath out of his wretched and bleeding 
body. In a moment he rose, this time not ashamed to tear away the reeking 
scalp of the Indian who had in his boasts touched on a chord 

“ I bet my life,” muttered he, seizing a horse by the nostrils, and draggn. 6 
his head down irresistibly, “ that Senyor Murder-the-Vaqueroes will wipe out no 
more lone trappers, durn his carcass— would he were roasting alongside his 
chief! Innyhow, he can’t fall, scalpless, in among his brethren in the happy 
hunting-grounds ! ” 

All three were mounted now, a task which would have been far more difficult 


84 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


only for the horses which Mr. Gladsden had selected being by chance stolen 
from the Mexicans, and, hence, rather pleased than alarmed at instinctively 
recognising hands more familiar than their last masters’. 

The two Apache boys were crawling away for refuge in the corral cactus ; 
thence to recover from the blows, and hurl insults and stones. 

In a glance, Oliver saw their only chance was to run the gauntlet between 
the burning house and those of the Apache’s rearguard, who had already 
stopped, ceased to pepper the hidden bandits, and looked back towards the 
horses in such wild agitation. 

“ Hep-la ! ” cried Oliver to the herd, applying his heavy hand to the rump of 
the two or three that were within reach, “and away! 'Vantay ! (advance) 
git ! ” 

The horses preceded the three, but the latter’s mounts participated in the 
fever of escape, all the more as the heat, the smell, and the flames of the 
Green Ranche had struck their olfactory and visual organs with that terrifying 
influence of fire upon the equine race. 

“ Let ’em rip ! ” cried the hunter; “they’ll not shoot in the midst, lest they 
hurt a hoss. They’re outrageous fond of horses, these ’Pach ! ” 

As the furious cavalcade trampled by the Ranche door, the Englishman fired 
a hurried shot within. Immediately, the chant of the Apache, which was 
audible above the crackling and hissing of the flames, ceased short. 

“ You are a good old hoss ! ” ejaculated Oliver, who divined the humanity 
which prompted the merciful bullet, though incapable of such foolish leniency, 
or, at least, inexcusable waste of ammunition himself. “ He desarved all 
he was gitting; but, na’theless, it’s better you had it off your conscienc *. 
He’s a green gilly,” he added, under his breath, eyeing his pupil approvingly ; 
“ but for sand — you bet thar’s a heap of sand, thar. If it war writing-paper from 
hyar to his sprouting-ground, jest take him up by the heel and sprinkle him out 
over the hull spread, and there’d be enough to cover an old bull on the last 
squar’ foot! He’s made of grit, he is that ! ” 

On the roof of the building they had perceived the blanched faces of the two 
bar-tenders. There they lay, after having been pursued up the gap in the 
ceiling by the fiery tongues, afraid to move, and so attract the Apache’s view. 

As for Camote, he had vanished into a nook no doubt planned for some such 
eventuality, deep enough to require digging out. 

As soon as the fugitives were surely out of range, first of the Apaches and, 
then, of the bandits, sufficiently engaged by the latter to bestow no more than 
a couple of random shots on the adventurers, they began to pull rein hard. 
While actually looking back, there was nothing to see but the column of flame 
and blue smoke from the Green Ranche. But after having resumed their 
course, they heard a dull boom, like a cannon report, of which the muzzle was 
in a cave. 

“ The heavy mud roof has fallen in,” remarked Oliver ; “the chief’s scalp is 
safe, and the spreeing-den of the Sonora bandoleros will never house them no 
more.” 

When the horses they rode were cur^d of their panic by kindly “ horse-talk,” 
of j t,ie hui,ter was protuse, and when the rattle of the stampeded troop 
had died away utterly, the commonly dense stillness of the wilderness fell upon 
all around. r 

“ Those niggers will go on yelling and pelting one another till their powder 
gives out ’ remarked Oliver. “There’ll be scarcely half-a-dozen strokes to 
count, but, however, blood has been spilt, and so while they are scrimmaging 
we can canter on.” J 


The Old, Old Friends. 


8 5 


I hus reassured, Donna Perla smiled again. In a few words she acquainted 
the hunter with such landmarks around her father’s estate as to enable him to 
direct their course as straight as the mottes or “ islands ” of woodland in the 
prairie permitted. But if the Mexican lady and the Englishman argued well of 
the profound solitude, the Oregonian did not lay aside his watchfulness. Leading 
the van, three horse lengths, his rifle across the saddle bow, bent forward so 
that the animal s head shielded his bosom, and his eyes peered over the ears, he 
retained all that wariness demanded in Northern Mexico, where the axiom 
reigns : Homo homine lupus, not to be translated as it was done by an ex- 
cellent trapper friend of the author’s, a squawman who had wedded an Indian 
woman and so became an ally of the tribe Don’t feed loups (wolves) with 
hominy,” but, “ Man is a devouring wolf to his brother.” 


CHAPTER XIX. 

THE OLD, OLD FRIENDS. 

Between seven and eight o’clock in the evening the two guardsmen of La 
Perla Purissima were still riding with her in a somewhat melancholy mood. They 
had even feared her indications were wrong, particularly as they had met none of 
their native wood-cutters, employed by the Mission of San Fernando, or of the 
hacienda of the young lady’s father, at the magnificent remuneration of half-a- 
dozen dollars per month, the insignificant rations in supplement being not 
worth considering. As a consequence the loan of an ounce, which vast amount 
they never dream of repaying, constitutes them serfs for life. Whatever the 
causes, not one of these slaves appeared in the land, where a carrion crow or 
two, that evidence of a settled county, now and then was visible, having per- 
ceived even so far away the battlefield contested by border-ruffians and the 
Indian raiders. 

“ Queer,” remarked Oliver, shaking his head, and redoubling his precautions, 
whilst relaxing the pace for the same reasons, though they stood in need of 
food and rest at the earliest moment. 

Their horses, too, which the Indians had ridden with that recklessness to their 
manner born, were suffering from thirst and enforced fast. 

It came on dark, too, “ a nigger of a night,” grumbled the hunter, and not a 
star in the sky. Thick clouds, charged with electricity, coursed over head like 
antelopes in fright, urged by a gale that increased continually, and the nimble 
of far-off thunder warned them that a storm was imminent and shelter needful. 

Still they rode on, doggedly, step by step, or rather, paso entrapaso, which 
is the Spanish for intermingling steps, taken, indeed, by the horses shrinking 
together hoof-locked and trying to “hump up” their backs in alarm, when 
suddenly the pioneer’s mount, lifting its hanging head and wagging its ears 
briskly, uttered a derisive neigh. So does the noble animal often express his 
lordly contempt for the humble by-brother, the mule. 

Indeed, not far aside on the north-east or left, they heard the quick amble of 
some quadruped. In a few instants there appeared a shadow, which approached 
with a daring or simplicity which perplexed the hunter, already grasping his gun. 


86 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


The hail of the on-comer was in Spanish, a religious greeting appropriate to 
the vesper hour, to which, involuntarily and through well-schooled habit, the 
sweet fresh voice of the Mexican maiden straightway responded. 

“ It is Father Serafino,” she added in explanation. “ Our Lady of Guadeloupe 
be thanked ! ” The name vaguely struck the Englishman as familiar, once 
upon a time, and he extended his hand to check the movement of Oliver, 
despite the recognition, to be wholly in readiness to fire. 

Meanwhile the priest, for it was one, bestriding a fine Spanish mule of unusual 
size and docility, had come up. 

As well as the murkiness would allow one to discern, he was a man of about 
fifty, but his broad brow was smooth as a youth’s ; sweet intelligence dwelt in 
the blue eyes which were shaded by long lashes under brown brows regularly 
traced. His face was perfectly cleanly shaven, and his long hair, only slightly 
threaded with silver, came down on his shoulders, and framed an oval visage. 
His voice was melodious, but not devoid of manliness. Altogether, the 
attractive and sterling man was a worthy successor of the brothers who 
accompanied the mail-clad knights in their inroads from Mexico to San 
Francisco. His simple costume was composed of a black gown buttoned all 
the way and gathered in by a broad band ; his sombrero had been lost in his 
ride, made in haste. 

This same precipitation impelled him to be brief in his story and in his 
congratulations to the senyorita for having been saved from the spoilers. 

“ Though there will be great joy at the house,” he said, “ there will still 
remain mourning, my daughter.” 

“ My father ! my mother ! ” 

“ All these are well, and so your brother, but he and his wife and they all 
in grief — an arrow, at random, entered an upper window and slew the babe in 
its cradle. The will of heaven be done in ail things 1 the little angel, at least, 
will not be exposed to the horrors which I fear still are poised ere soon 
descending.” 

He closed his sentence with so sad an air that all gazed at him, afraid to 
question. 

“ Yea, terrible events are in preparation, of which the swoop of the Apaches 
on the farm and the taking away of the heiress form no adequate examples. 
At least, when they strike, they fly, and are gone like the hawk. But a danger 
on the very hearth is arising. In short, friends of my little daughter here, listen • 
the Yagui Indians, the Christians, the converts, the semi-civilised, whom we 
employ throughout Sonora as peons, field-hands or labourers, have seen in the 
too often successful raids of the wild brethren active slurs on their tameness. 
The ease with which this last band of Apaches overcame the servants of Don 
Benito has set them plotting, I know, to revolt against him, and against other 
masters, alas ! not so kind, fair and punctual in payment of their pittance as 
your father, my poor child,” 

“ Of them, who is going to be uneasy, father ? ” responded La Perla, with the 
confident, arrogant smile of the daughter of the ruling race. “ Have not these 
poor dogs many a time in my young life, brooded, ay, and yelped of an attack, 
but between the menace and its execution, what a distance ! ” 

“ That is the saying of a child, gentlemen,” continued Father Serafino. “ She 
mistakes this time. Acknowledging the good Indians to have been* treated 
badly of late, they are out of patience. They are in active rebellion. All the 
Indians who were on our Mission have disappeared. Last night,” he added in a 
whisper, “ of my two brothers who went over to the farms of Bellavista and the 
Palmero, to inquire news, one only returned,” this in a still lower tone so that 


The Old, Old Friends. 


87 


the girl could not possibly overhear, “ the outbreakers had carried them by storm 
— massacred every living creature and danced round the blazing buildings, one 
of those pagan dances whose memories I had hoped we had banished from their 
darkened brains. The surviving brother, hiding in the thicket till he could 
secure a stray horse, heard their council swear to destroy the white man and 
all his works throughout Sonora and retreat to the Northern Deserts to live free 
and wild in the abominable practices of their ancestors. They talked even of 
attacking Ures, and said all the Indians in the pueblos would join them. What 
will the hundred soldiers at Ures do ? I tell you, gentlemen, such is the general 
situation.” 

“ It’s a tight nip,” agreed Oliver. 

Terrible 1 ” added the Englishman, shuddering to think of the poor father, 
his friend, ignorant still of the happy fate of his child, and exposed to the 
overwhelming storm of the revolted serfs. 

“It is good and bad, too,” resumed the priest, “that the neighbours and 
kinsmen of Don Benito will be flocking there to celebrate the ascension to 
heaven of his grandchild. Good, that so many heads of family should be 
under one roof, but bad that their own homes should be without commanders 
at such an emergency.” 

“ The Indians,” said Oliver authoritatively, “ will move in a mass, for they 
have not been trained as individual warriors ; hence they will attack this houses 
which contains all they hate, their masters. My vote is : on to Don Benito’s 1 n 

The priest bowed at this utterance of a man of warfare. The English gentle- 
man approved, if only out of eagerness to place Donna Perla in her mother’s arms. 

“ I’ll show you the way! ” said Father Serafino, smiting his mule with his 
slipper. “ On to the Hacienda of Monte Tesoro, then.” 

“The Treasure Hill!” Don Benito had erected his chief farmhouse as a 
memorial of the haul in the Gulf of California. 

They tailed away at once in a new order; the mule leading at a good pace, 
spite of the obscurity which little impeded one very familiar with the ground, 
Gladsden following with the Mexican maiden, almost by his side, and the hunter 
bringing up the rear, ever and anon looking steadily'behind him. 

It was the middle of the night, amid falling raindrops of great size, that the 
little troop beheld the loopholed walls of an enclosure round the grounds of an 
imposing mansion rise up into view. All the gates and doors were wide open, 
and every window blazed with light. A number of peons, brandishing torches, 
rushed out to welcome those they took to be belated guests. But as soon as the 
illumination fell upon the beauteous face of the daughter of the proprietor, they 
sent up a ringing shout which revealed how deeply endeared was that master 
and all his kith and kin. 

The farmhouse itself was engirt, and all its approaches encumbered by at 
least a hundred shanties ( mescals ) and mud-brick cabins, of miserable aspect, 
scattered at haphazard, and used for the abodes of the house servants and farm 
labourers. At the present juncture, though, the misery was gilded, since every 
hut glowed with light, and out of the doorways poured the jingling of tam- 
bourines, the banging of tombays or drums, and laughter; songs and shouts 
mingled with the tinkling and strumming of stringed instruments, in wild, 
thrilling native waltzes. 

Though there were women and children squatting and sprawling in the clear 
space between the cabins, mounted peons, swinging flambeaux, were racing to 
and fro, at the risk of trampling on them. 

On triumphantly and joyously entering the courtyard [patio ), the strangers 
beheld a no less singular and picturesque spectacle. 


88 


The Treasure of Pearls, 


Around great piles of burning wood, which would have roasted mastodons, 
whole trees being required to feed them, a multitude were revelling, swilling, 
and cramming, whilst a few in tatters, Indians as their complexion showed, were 
pacing the ancient steps, which so scandalised Father Serafino, and which were 
the ceremonial performances of the Yaguis, perhaps as old as the creed he so 
sturdily supported. 

Through this carousing throng, spite of the spell which the announcement of 
the recovery of the maiden by the reverend father exercised tolerably potently, 
the horsemen made but new progress. 

By the time they arrived at the wide portals, these were choked up by a party 
of gentlemen, in the front of whom, even had he not called out his daughter’s 
name with indescribable joy, the Englishman recognised his former shipmate. 

Yes, truly, the well-preserved gentleman who embraced La Perla was none 
other than our Don Benito Vasquez de Bustamente, son of the General-President 
of Mexico, now proprietor of Monte Tesoro and many another estate as rich, 
the pearl-diver of old. 

When the haciendero looked on the group behind his daughter, glancing 
affectionately at the padre who was so close and old an acquaintance, and 
curiously and not very kindly at the American whose position he recognised, and 
whose buckskin frock was stained with blood from the fresh lank scalp thrust 
into his belt- until he should have time to cure it, and comb out the clotted hair 
into fringe for ornament, he finally rested his gaze as if spellbound on the fair- 
complexioned European. 

“ Papa,” said the Purest of Pearls, suddenly remembering that she stood in 
the place of a mistress -of ceremonies, “ I have the happiness to present to you 
the oldest of your friends, to whom I owe, as you have often told me, the bliss 
of being rich, with my mamma. I now present him, too, as having reappeared in 
our world after many years — mine own lifetime, in faith, in order to save my life ! ” 

“ Don Jorge! ” shouted the Mexican, rushing forward and, not to be repelled 
by an attempt only to clasp his hand, enfolding the bashful Briton in a powerful 
embrace. 

“ My dear old Benito! ’*and the Englishman could say not a word in surplus. 

“ Gentlemen,” said the haciendero, turning to his countrymen, without caring 
to conceal the tears of delight upon his black moustache and beard, “ I have the 
signal honour to introduce to you the noblest heart that ever beat in the breast 
of a man ! My friend of friends, Don Jorge Federico Gladsden.” 

Every head was politely bent. 

“ The honour falls on me,” observed Gladsden. “ As for the rescue of your 
child, it was a providential casualty that brought her across my path — the rest 
is all the work of this keen, resolute, prompt and fearless American whom I, too, 
call my friend in the same full sense in which Don Benito uses it towards your 
humble servant. ’ 

So saying, he caught hold of the hand of the hunter and squeezed it so 
heartily that the latter quite forgot a little rising pain at having been rather 
unjustly omitted in the young lady’s presentation. 

“ And now,” said the master, “ let me lead, you to my wife, and my son and 
daughter, whom, unfortunately, we cannot relieve of grief at their loss as you 
have done of his parents, by the restoration of our treasured one.” 

“ Your son ! how time flies ! ” murmured Gladsden, “ though, for the matter 
of that, I have a couple of torments of my own. Only, less fortunate than you, 
my friend, I lost their mother long ago.” 

They had entered the house, where a silence ran before them and seertled 
gradually to begin to diminish the merry-making clamour. 


The Old, Old Friends . 


89 


“ Yes/’ said the priest, with a sigh, “ time is fleeting and death cometh as 
swiftly, and who of us can be certain of having ample opportunity to accomplish 
his duty — the task which heaven sets unto h m ? ” 

The solemnity of the accent deepened a gloom already befalling the guests. 

“ The padre is right,” broke in Oregon Oliver, whose impatience at the loss 
of time in ceremony was augmenting, “ jest let out that you are coming to save 
the house from the scalper and pison-hatchets ! what you’ve had was the 
blazing (marking a tree with a chop to denote it chosen for felling), the next 
call, the murderous-minded Apaches mean to fell the trunk from the topmost 
switch to the lowest bough.” 

All the gentlemen withdrew into a side-room, where the priest imparted his 
tragic intelligence. There was terrible anxiety, since the farming gentlemen 
had left their homesteads at the mercy of their peons thus denounced as 
treacherous. 

“ Well, senyores Caballeros,” said Benito, “ since you look to me, I say with 
our Norte Americano (Oliver) that, under such circumstances, the determination 
we are driven into is the best. I have four hundred peons on this farm. Of 
the lot, I can rely on three hundred, for one reason and another. I know the 
bulk of them as I do my own children. Against the hundred, or near a hundred 
and fifty, since some off strange plantations have flocked here, ostensibly for the 
junketting, we can pit my gentlemen friends, our relations. Each of them is the 
value of five or six wild Indians, You see, gentlemen, I rate you very low ! 
Now you require rest, a change of dress .” 

“ No, no,” said the Englishman and his guide with one breath. 

“ Pardon me, a short rest is requisite. By that time I shall have made my 
preparation, and then we may put the finishing touches on our plan of battle.” 

“ And Donna Dolores?” queried Mr. Gladsden. 

“ My daughter has gone to inform her that we have the honour and pleasure, 
at last," he said, reproachfully, “ to see under the roof always bound to shelter 
him, our foremost of friends and benefactors. After your repose, Donna 
Dolores will have the honour to receive you.” 

The Englishman and his companion were led away separately by servants 
bearing silver lamps. The former was conducted through several corridors 
into a chamber, where the steward ordered another massive silver lamp on a 
table to be lit. Whilst a third peon held the lamp up on high, the other two 
noiselessly and rapidly prepared a bath of rose-water in the next room. During 
their preparations, two others arrived in haste with a choice of clothes, the 
underlinen very fine, and from the first Paris houses. 

Meanwhile Gladsden looked about him. 

The room was quite large, having two small windows and one glazed door 
opening into a garden. On the whitened walls were pictures in gold frames, 
such as are painted in a mechanical way for Northern dealers to send in 
quantity to New Orleans, Santa Fe, and Mexico, for sale by torchlight. They 
represented, after good and popular masters, scenes of religion, battle, hunting, 
history, &c., and were hung without order. At all events* they regaled the 
sight by their vivid colour. In one corner was a folding sleeping chair, on 
which were thrown splendid skins and furs and fine blankets, to be arranged as 
the sleeper fancied. The furniture was completed by a massive mahogany 
centre table, a square table against the wall near the. chair-bed, two openwork 
armchairs, and some Indian wickerwork footstools. There was a pedestal of 
marble for a religious image, but the statue had been removed to figure in the 
hall devoted to the ceremony of the Angelito. 

Whatever the English guest had said against his need for repose when 


9° 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


danger threatened, he had no sooner returned from his bath in fresh habili- 
ments, to find on the table a tasteful spread of preserved fruit, smoking 
chocolate of fine savour and much thickness, and light pastry, to say nothing of 
some cold turkey and ham with golden-hued corn bread, then he did not blame 
his host for the insistance on overruling him. Lighting a cigarette, he reclined 
on the couch-chair, and soon sank into a blessed state of physical enjoyment 
less and less appreciated, of course, as his overtasked brain and frame lent 
themselves gratefully to slumber. 

When he awoke, a couple of hours only thence, he saw the table again 
covered with eatables, but a great deal more substantial. It was laid for three. 
A couple of superior servants were just finishing the decoration with vases of 
spring flowers, and so deftly doing their work, that it was not any noisy blunder 
on their part that had aroused him. He did not like to inquire of them who 
were going to be his guests. Luckily, he was not long left on tenterhooks. 

The door opened, and Don Benito, showing himself, made way courteously 
for Oliver to precede him. The American was clad in a Mexican dress, jingling 
and shining with silver buttons, and really would have made many a black-eyed 
damsel’s heartache at a dance in his new but not altogether unaccustomed array. 

With fine forethought, Benito had arranged to take supper — or whatever name 
this midnight meal deserved — with his old friend and the other deliverer of his 
beloved daughter. 

After appeasing hunger — for Gladsden’s had revived, and Oregon 01. never 
seemed at a loss to eat when anything was on the board — they conferred 
seriously. 

The haciendero had made his servants and the Indians who were truly 
converts kiss the cross and swear to die for their master — about the only 
binding oath to impose on such gentry. A hundred of the least dubious were 
to be clad in a kind of uniform so as to look like soldiers. 

“ Your friend, our friend, will lead them. These North Americans have 
persuasive methods and a spirit which converts the timid into guerreadors — 
heroes even, which we do not possess, or we should not be the yearly prey of 
the Comanches.” 

“As to leading them,” said Oliver, eating a tortilla smeared with marmalade 
with the gusto of a schoolboy, “ I shall rather git on behind them ; and how 
they will charge when they know I shall shoot the first that turns back on 
my toes 1 ” 

“ If this is North American persuasion,” began Gladsden, laughing. 

“Jest another time. In brief, Don Olivero will take his five score sham 
soldiers out of the secret gate in the corral which, by the way, you may not 
know, every rich landed proprietor has in order in a country of revolution ; and 
he will go and ambush a quarter of a league away. Meanwhile, we shall esta- 
blish our watches so as not to be taken by surprise. If the ambuscade be 
discovered, Don Olivero will signal me by two rockets— red and white. If we 
however, as is more likely, are first attacked, we shall notify him, in await, by 
sending up two rockets— white and red. Then will he lead, or follow Vs 
chivalry, and take the red rabble in the rear as they envelope my farm. They 
will imagine the lancers and dragoons have come from Ures or Hermosillo, and 
recoil on our enclosure. We will rally out, and we’ll mince them up into bits as 
fine as that poor Matasiete was chewed by the sharks of the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia ; eh, you remember him, Don Jorge ? ” 

“ Decidedly ' ! he lives in my remembrance all the more lively, because I 
cannot have been mistaken in my impression that I saw him only this earlv 
morning.” J * 


9 1 


The Angelito. 


“Saw Don Annibal, as he called himself? saw the gallant of my late aunt, 
Josefa Maria — and only this morning! Impossible! you are still dreaming!” 

“ My friend ! as truly as your bullet creased that hook nose, I saw it at the 
wicket in the door of the Green Ranche Tavern. Don Matasiete, whose garland 
of names I cannot recal in full, was not entombed in the maw of the tintoreras, 
but escaped with the loss of a limb. In pleasant allusion to that disaster he is 
called ‘ The Dismembered’ even now, and he is that One-leg Peter, or Pedrillo 
el Manco, who, it appears, revives on this frontier all the old tales of rascally 
doing for which, in former days, he was so famous. What’s bred in the blood 
won’t come out with the loss of a limb, you see.” 

“ An enemy like that! so near me, and often! How, then, is it that I have 
never been injured by him or his band ? ” 

“ Really,” answered Mr. Gladsdan, perplexed, “I am at a loss to enter into 
the mind of such rascals. Mayhap he is reserving you for a top-off to his 
career of scoundrelism.” 

The repast being ended, Don Benito conducted his old and his new friend 
to present them to his wife and family. 

Neither they nor the other ladies had been informed of the terrible disaster 
in suspense ; and, as far as they were concerned, as well even as some of the 
younger gentlemen from the neighbourhood, the festival of the Angelito was 
still proceeding. 


CHAPTER XX, 

THE ANGELITO. 

The hall into which the strangers were ushered by the host offered a most 
strange and striking aspect. 

It was magnificently furnished, and gorgeously illuminated by numerous 
crystal chandeliers, crowded with rose-wax tapers, and hung from the ceiling. 
The walls had been covered with rare and thick old tapestry of exquisite work. 
The richness of the sculptured furniture in oak, mahogany, black-walnut, and 
ebony, surpassed in solidity anything seen abroad. The very catches, bolts, 
hinges, and locks, were in cut silver. The whole floor was covered with very 
fine palm-matting, or petate. 

Two carpet-covered platforms were erected, one at each end of this hall, 
wherein some three hundred persons were looking at the principal stage, and 
the sole one tenanted since, at a command from Don Benito, the musicians had 
vacated the other, intended only for them. 

This second dais was arranged as an alcove, curtained in. Religious 
emblems, in gold and jewels, decorated the depths. The poor little child, 
victim of the Apache’s missiles, powdered and rouged, was propped up in a 
draped chair, clad in white satin and lace, and covered with flowers, many 
more fading blooms strewing the floor. 

The mother of this grandchild of Don Benito was seated near her little one. 


92 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


She was a very young wife, of scarcely more years than Donna Perla ; of 
equally rare beauty, but of corpse-like pallor from her vigils and sorrow, which 
was rendered the more palpable by her cheeks being thickly reddened with 
paint. Her fixed eyes, circled with black, gazed into vacancy with wild 
feverishness. She tried to wear a calmly joyful smile ; but often a painful 
spasm convulsed her features, set her lips quivering, her limbs shivering, and 
shook muffled sobs from her bosom. 

About her were seated ladies, mostly young and fair, who were attempting 
not to console the poor mother, but to cheer her up, as their belief dictated. 

The other guests were grouped around, chatting, smoking, and taking 
refreshment from sideboards. 

Don Benito saw, and perhaps in a measure comprehended, the reproving, or, 
at least, pained look in the eyes of both the European and the American, 
shocked at such a scene when they were so full of perturbation for the 
impending conflict. 

“ Conduct the reverend Father Serafino hither,” he said to a servant. 

A handsome and haughty youth, whom Mr. Gladsden recognised at once by 
his resemblance to his father, came up to the new-comer, and affectionately 
threw himself into his arms. It was Don Jorge, the bereaved father, though 
quite a boy in Mr. Gladsden’s opinion. 

“ Caballero,” said he ; “ nothing but your coming, the dearest, oldest friend 
of my father, could have given me this moment’s distraction in my grief over 
my first-born. Yours was the kindness that united my father and mother. 
However can we repay the obligation we, their children, lie beneath ? ” 

“ By showing me as much affection as I shall do to you, Jorge, my boy. 
Upon my word, if I required any reward, I have it now amply, by shaking the 
hand of so promising a namesake.” 

The young mother made an effort, smiled dolefully, and let herburning hand rest 
in Mr. Gladsden’s, while he kissed her equally heated forehead, and then threw 
a few of the already wilting spring flowerets upon the lap of the little corpse. 

During this, Father Serafino had come into the hall. Instantly on seeing him all 
chatter ceased, and on every side the ladies and gentlemen respectfully saluted him. 

Meanwhile, Gladsden turned sorrowfully to a lady in black and rose satin, 
covered with jewelry, in whom he well knew again, spite of a loss of slender- 
ness, the graceful Dolores who had been his passenger on the Little Joker. 

Her emotion was too full for words as she clasped his proffered hand in both 
hers, shining with rings, among which emeralds and pearls gleamed, due to 
that hoard he had inherited and shared with this noble family. 

They had no leisure for a conversation, as the priest, at the suggestion of the 
host, had slowly mounted the musicians’ platform, and now said in a sympa- 
thetic but firm voice : — 

“ Young mother, retire now into your private apartments and there give free 
way to your woes. Go, and in praying forget not, together with your blessed 
babe, all those who are within the precincts of this house, inasmuch as an 
unexampled danger menaces them. And you, my sisters,” he continued, 
addressing the other ladies, “ accompany your kinswoman and friend, console her 
and join in her prayers. Your place is no longer here.” 

The young mother rose with a sudden sob, and in an instant her face was 
flooded with tears. Her mother stepped in between her and the dead child, 
whereupon, as though that interposition and eclipsing of her lost treasure had 
broken a binding link, Don Jorge’s wife swooned away in the arms of her 
friends. They all clustered round, and she and her mother were borne away in 
their midst, amid softened wailing and muttered sympathy. 


The Angelito . 


93 


The rest of the guests not in the secret were overwhelmed by stupor ; and’ 
indeed, had any one but the priest thus put an end to the important ceremony, 
they would have loudly protested and even hushed him up. 

“ My brethren,” resumed he, in a clear, full voice, “ hearken to my words and 
gather up all your courage. Throughout this entire province, the Yagui Indians 
have broken their bondage. They threaten Ures and Hermosillo ; already they 
have over-swarmed I know not how many farms — those houses are smouldering, 
their people are stiffening after indescribable tortures 1 I come hither to warn 
our friend that Monte-Tesoro is the object of the rebels’ march. To-night, the 
attack will come, peradventure in one short hour! Brethren, verily I bidye 
not forget that the enemies who threaten ye are ferocious pagans from whom 
you can expect no mercy ! Resist them you must, forasmuch as in resisting 
them you preserve the people and the habitations deeper in the land, as well 
as all the women and youth providentially here. Thankful am I that the 
heavenly Hand hath guided me hither to warn you of the wrath let loose, to 
cheer you in your tribulations ! Hence, silenced be merriment ! cessation 
to all frivolous feasting! On our knees, brethren, and let us all beseech 
the good and merciful Power, without whom man is as naught, to make ye 
invincible.” 

It was a still "more singular sight, more grand and impressive, when the gay 
guests knelt in that flittering hall, redolent with flowers, smoke of funeral 
meats, and incense, whilst the only upright thing was the baby corpse in its 
chair of state, seeming to smile with a blushing face, like an infant prince 
receiving homage. 

When the Mexican gentlemen rose, their eyes were sparkling with courage, 
enthusiasm, and resolution. 

“Alerta! alerta!” arose without, as the principal note and the only 
intelligible one in the clamour, more and more loud. 

And “ Alerta 1 ” shouted an old major-domo, bursting into the hall 
white hair streaming. “Oh, master! the Indians approach! the 
peons are pursuing a track of blood and fire ! The pueblos, as far as 
can reach, are ablaze. The hosts will be at our stockade in an hour! 
the patio is crowded with a throng of fugitives ! ” 

It was overabundant confirmation of the priest’s announcement. 

“There is my place, amongst these unfortunates,” observed he. “You do 
your duty in your own way, whilst I console the fugitives, heal the wounded, 
and pray for those who fall.” 

“ Gentlemen,” cried Don Benito, “ I assume command of my faithful 
tenantry, and I swear that the revolted redskins shall find my body the next 
barrier behind my hacienda walls.” 

“ Courage and hope ! ” said Father Serafino. 

Mr. Gladsden rose to go with the American in his sort'ie, since he had not 
sufficient acquaintance with Spanish to carry on conversation with the besieged, 
strangers all to him as well. 

“ Since we are still to travel in a team,” said Oliver, gladdened by this arrange- 
ment, “ put yourself inside a uniform like me. They’ve made me a brigadier- 
general, at the least,” he added, facetiously admiring himself in a well gold- 
laced coat. 

Whilst the Englishman was apparelling himself in much such another suit, 

he continued: — rr>, ^ 

“ Thar hev been six-score men picked out for my band. The Don says these 
hev had a brush with the smokeskins, and with wild cats, and can be relied 
on 1 don’t vally them a dollar per ton myself. Hows’ever, we shan’t be shot 


with his 
revolted 
the eye 
Already 


94 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


by them in the back, as they are only trusted with long sticking poles, being 
rigged out as lanceroes — about all the heroes we shall find them, I opine.” 

“The lance is the Mexican national weapon,” remarked Mr. Gladsden. 

“ I trust more to a dozen cow-punchers among ’em — the vaqueros do know 
how to swing the lasso, and that’s a fact. Are you ready ? ” 

“ Your lieutenant is ready, captain.” 

“ Call me * colonel.’ They are all captains in my squad, I b’lieve. You 
have come out a full-grown shiner. I feel like the big dog with a new brass 
collar — how’s your feel, too ?” 

In plain words, the pair looked a handsome and portentous couple in their 
metamorphosis into Mexican officers. On going out they found Don Benito 
in the vestibule. He, too, had donned an old, but carefully preserved, brilliant 
costume of his father’s as President-General, and was as the sun to a star in 
his superior effulgence beside them. A black servant was holding a golden 
salver, with a decanter and glasses rimmed with gold, at his elbow, grinning 
with awe and admiration at his master being so superbly caparisoned. 

“ A parting cup,” said the haciendero, “ and away ! We have no time for 
coquetting.” 

“ A loving cup,” said Gladsden, tasting the cup, whilst Oliver refused his. 

“ I have head enough as it is,” he remarked, in excuse. “ You are 
drefful good, I will say that ; but I am not overly grasping for liquor when thar 
is a monstracious kickin’-out in prospect. After the slaying of the wild cattle, 
Don, then I am ‘ on ’ for my share o’ the b’ar-steaks and honey.” 

On going out into the courtyard they at once perceived the great change. 
All the bonfires were beaten out, song and dance had been hushed, and the 
gates were closed and barricaded. In the gloom could only be distinguished 
the shadowy sentinels watching immoveably in the loops and gaps in the wall, 
and at peepholes in the palisades. As Monte-Tesoro was an eminence, these 
vigiladores could see fairly over the whole plain. Oliver pointed out that, to 
both east and west, there was a ruddy, tawny tinge. 

“ Villages burning. The enemy is coming on.” 

They crossed one immense corral, and then a still larger enclosure, wherein the 
hundred-and-twenty sham lancers were awaiting, each man standing by his horse, 
the bridle in the left hand, ready to vault into the saddle like real troopers. Two 
peons held a couple of very fine animals, completely harnessed and decked out, 
of which they presented the reins to Oliver and the Englishman. 

Don Benito paused. With him were several of the elders of his guests ; all 
wore grave expressions. Every one was armed. 

“ Out ! ” said he. 

He stepped over to the stockade, scrutinising it attentively for a space, then, 
stooping a trifle, he bore his weight on one particular pile, whereupon, all of 
a sudden, a piece of the palissade opened widely, like the secret door that it 
was, quite noiselessly, and left a broad gangway. Oliver waved his hand, 
signifying “ come on ! ” and held up three fingers, meaning “ three at a time ! ” 
— sign language being universal on the border where so many tongues are 
intermixed. The horsemen passed him in review, three abreast, each leading 
his mount. 

As, strangely enough, the hoofs drew no sound whatever from contact with 
the soil, Mr. Gladsden stooped and examined the feet of his own steed, upon 
which act all the enigma was solved. Like the old warsman he was, Oliver 
had hinted that he wanted his troop with muffled hoofs, and the delicate trick 
over which King Lear was ecstatic, had been performed by swathing them in 
strips of blanket around cotton-wool pads. 


The Lancers * Charge, 


9$ 


The Englishman was the very last to march forth, still shaking the hands of 
Don Benito and his young namesake. 

“ Go with God l ” sa i d the sire, fervently ; “ you hold our fate in your brave 
hands. You alone can save us.” 

“Keep up your spirits,” was the rejoinder. “That friend of mine is no 
common man, and, in any case, we are going to do our best. If I never return, 
mind, as that scrap of writing I dashed off, records, I leave my sons especially 
to you as a second father, and to you, Jorge, as an elder brother.” 

As he mounted, and moved on to join his comrades, the secret door swung 
to, and all dissolution of continuity in the barrier disappeared. 

There was a ditch to leap, and its sloping front to slide down. There the 
squadron formed. Oliver had taken to his side the oldest tigrero, or “ vermin ” 
eradicator of the farm, as his pilot. 

“Follow!” said the American, curtly, between this hunter and Gladsden, 
“ by threes, follow 1 ” 


CHAPTER XXI. 

THE LANCERS’ CHARGE. 

The forlorn hope started off at full gallop behind the trio, in a flight through 
the obscurity which was as lugubrious as fantastic. The sweet and sadly wan 
moonbeams stretched the cavaliers’ shadows immeasurably over the land. 
Every detail of the landscape took gaunt aspects. The trees, waving white 
and grey beards of Spanish moss, and endless creepers in loops and knots, 
seemed spectres that were stationed to catch and hang the riders. No such 
headlong course could have been performed by any but such Mexican centaurs. 
It lasted over an hour, till Oliver reined in and called out — 

“ Pull up ! ” 

“ Alto ! alto l” was reiterated down the line, till the column was all in 
quiescence on the edge of a boundless virgin forest. 

“ Where are we ? ” inquired Gladsden. 

“Three leagues from the farm,” answered Oliver, after the Tigrero had 
given him a clue. “ I thought more. We have turned the main body of the 
insurgents, and are on their rear if they are about to fall on the big farm. I 
am going to cache the squad under the leaves, and go on the scout myself.” 

“ Had you not better send one of these, who are so familiar with the country ? M 
remonstrated the Englishman. “ Your place as commander ” 

“ Tush ! There are too many lives at stake for me to hesitate to risk mine. 
T 1 in never make by big throws onless I hev sartin news. That Old Silvano 
could be trusted to see all that I shall see, but he hasn’t a passle ( parcelle f 
particle, used in that sense by the Canadian French trappers) o’ jedgment, and 
on jedgment depends the ha’r o’ them Spanish in the hacienda. I do this 
gCOUt/’ said he shortly. “ If I know anything, I b’lieve it’s scouting.” 


9 6 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


“ Since things are so, go ahead.” 

Oliver alighted, gave some orders, delegated his authority to the Englishman 
with Silvano as his sub., and glided into the woods. Though there was no 
underbush, he was lost to the view almost instantly, so instinctively did he 
cover his body by the trunks. 

During his absence, the Mexicans rode under the branches, and dozed in the 
saddle, with pickets thrown out upon all sides. Gladsden let himself bo 
absorbed in his reflections, marvelling that after a brief period, he, the English 
gentleman of wealth, could be in the heart of an unexplored wood, on the 
borders of a desert, guarded by a band of men complete strangers not ten 
hours before, and exposed to being overwhelmed by a whole army of revolted 
slaves. 

In the midst of his reverie, without any warning, a hand was abruptly 
slapped on his knee, and a jesting voice said — 

“ How many mile in’ard of the Land of Nod ?” 

“ I was not asleep, Oliver,” cried Gladsden, indignantly, as, however, he 
opened his eyes, and blinked them in a way that belied his denial. 

The scout had returned and come right up to his side so stealthily that he 
had not been aroused. But the tiger-slayer had perceived him, and was smiling 
slightly at the practical joke which was, also, a lesson. 

“ Well, what’s the news ? ” 

“ Things are a good deal as I s’posed,” he answered. “ Thar are something 
like three or four thousand of the critters, and s’ich a rabble ! Very few have 
firearms, and, likely enough, no powder, and, if powder, no ball, so that thev 
will top the loading with stones and gravel and blow Fheir blamed topknots off 
at the first pull. The others hev come out powerful with spears, sheep-shearers 
divided and the blades thong’d on to poles, scythes, reaping-hooks, and all 
kind o’ things ugly to look at of which they have made we’pins. Some 
’stonishing black niggers are the head men of gangs. They are in a valley 
there away, on a road. They have no flankers out, and no look out, for they 
have no idee they mout be attnckted .” 

“ So we can manoeuvre without any apprehension of being discovered you 
mean, Ol.?” 

J ess so > gineral ! one of them mountain howitzer our army promenades 
with could pepper ’em up sure from hyar.” 

“ Where’s their left ? ” 

“ On a little village half-a-league tharabouts.” 

“And their right?” 

“On a little cluster of shanties that Old Silvano says is called Rancho 
Nuevo— nigh enough to be seen in the crack o’ day from hyar.” 

Can the signal rockets of the hacienda be seen from the two points you 
mention, and the road occupied by the mass of the rebels ? ” 

“ For why not ? They are three high p’ints over the sink they are in.” 

“ This looks promising enough.” 

* What ! do you think to cut up three or four thousand niggers ? ” 

My dear Oliver, I am sure that you have your idea in your head fully 
matured, and that we have nothing to do but put it into execution ” 

“I don’t know rightly about that. In any event, I am going’ to execute 
what the army men call a divarsion. If the innymy accept it as divarting, I’m 
satisfied. I should give it another name, myself, but thar ! thar’s no ’counting 
tor tastes. Besides the bulk of the Yaguis, thar is a long straggling train, with 
the plunder, the fat cowardly, and cunning, who are drinking and singing, 
G'fZd dancing like all possessed. They are coming almost dead to’rds us, and 


97 


The Lancers' Charge. 


we hev no more ’n time to receive them properly. If we turn them back, 
scattered, they will not be in condition to reinforce the army. That’s the first 
article on the bill o’ fare.” 

He beckoned the tiger-hunter to him. 

“ Capitano,” said he, “ pick out your bull-whackers, and add to them enough 
more to make about forty strong. Them’s your cuadrilla, savey ! Thar’s a 
right smart sprinkle of cattle straying over the plain, bewildered, whom those 
barbarians hev scared, some — well, into a fever. Lasso a dozen in a herd, 
tie up and throw down, and send one to report progress. Meanwhile, collect 
a heap of fat (resinous) candle-wood. Cook away — cuca, cap’en ! ” 

Silvano, delighted with his rank, and beaming with smiles to the eyebrow, 
soon departed with one-third or so of the little party. The rest were divided 
into two troops, of which the American and Gladsden took the leadership. 
The mufflers were removed from the hoofs as useless, and each troop was 
arranged in three ranks, twelve, fifteen, and eighteen in a line. Thus in order, 
they moved off under the trees, tall ones whose boughs only sprang out at an 
altitude of great degree, and parting at a silent signal, ranged themselves one 
each side of a track through the woodland, dignified by the title of road. 
They were stationed one above the other. 

Two hours had passed in these dispositions. 

The moon had gone down lower and more low in the heavens, till, in the 
end, it dropped beneath the eye-line, and opaque shadows enveloped the 
country and blended all objects into one mass. In the stillness of a cemeterv, 
the two cavalcades, no longer visible to one another, awaited the forthcoming 
enemy. 

Wild Indians detest this hour, under the influence of a belief that the soul 
of a warrior killed in the dark spell before dawn is doomed to dwell ever- 
lastingly in gloom ; but the converted peons had had this superstition modified 
or obliterated altogether. 

At all events, there was soon heard a confused murmur, which changed 
speedily into a blending of shouting, monotonous chanting, and occasional 
shots, while yellow flares crossed the darkest glades of the pine woods. 

In twenty minutes, the vanguard of a tumultuous gathering of brown and 
black-skinned men, women, and youths, filled the track. They were almost 
naked, or merely attired in fragments of clothes to which they had never been 
accustomed, some bearing torches, some crucibles from mines, filled with oil 
and coarse wicks, and others candles of great length taken from. chapels. 

They were allowed to pass unchallenged. 

After them the more active insurgents, drunken, frenzied, hoarse, tired with 
a long march, but demoniacal with their features twitching in insatiable 
passion, surged up in a tolerable order, brandishing and clashing their weapons, 
mostly of the improvised nature hinted at by the scout in his description. 

All of a sudden, the harsh croak of a sandy-hill crane was audible in the 
thicket to the north of the road where Oliver had posted himself. Immediately 
the man at the side of Gladsden imitated the clatter of the beak of the same 
bird clearing it of the debris of a gobbled frog, by tapping his pistol-barrel on 
his lance-shaft. The next instant there was a rush of horses to the side of the 
forest track, and “ Viva Mejico ! ” resounded full-throated from Oregon 01. 

“ Y Libertad ! ” was the completion of the signal and war cry from the 
followers of Gladsden, as they, too, set spurs to their steeds. 

“ Mexico and liberty ! ” 

Simultaneously, therefore, the two companies burst upon the column of 
Indians, cutting through and leaving a layer upon layer of pierced mortality 


98 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


like in the track of a tornado. Having crossed, they made a circuit, and, 
coming out on the road once more, one higher up, and the other lower down 
the line of the previous charges, completed the surprise of the insurgents. 

“ Wheel, face forward in chase! ” was the next command. 

In half an hour, the riders came into the rendezvous agreed upon, having 
effectually frightened that column, and sent the surviving members reeling and 
flying in panic through the woods, back whence they came. 

Five only of the Mexicans were missing. The wounds received were 
unimportant. The horses were breathed ; the cavaliers allowed to congratulate 
themselves and their leaders. Oliver had a devoted following now, for these 
Mexicans are too unused to easy triumphs not to idolise the commander who 
gluts them with such a feast of vanity. 

The collected horsemen rode off, slowly groping, to the appointed place on 
the open ground where Silvano and the herders were to have secured the semi- 
wild cattle. It was a little less dark, the false dawn, in fact, and thus Gladsden, 
though not so accustomed to the night marching as the rest, could see the 
horsemen of the Tigrero forming a wide circle ; in the centre were several 
strange objects, writhing and beckoning to the stars. They were long-horned, 
thin, wiry cattle, of the breed of old which never will fatten in Mexican 
pastures, fleet as antelopes, savage as tigers. By dexterous casts of the lariat, 
they had been roped, hurled to the ground, and secured there,' heels in the air. 
They were daunted but disdained to bow, mutely protesting by glaring eyes, 
full of congested blood, and twitching of the tails. A little way off, a heap 
of resinous wood was formed. 

“ Prime ! ” ejaculated the hunter, perceiving all this almost as clearly as by 
day. “ Don Benny shall give you a silver medal, old coon.” 

He issued instructions which were forthwith carried out with delighted 
comprehension. The cattle were allowed to rise, but still held, half choked anc^ 
much hampered with the leather ropes, whilst some active hands bound fat 
branches to their long horns, so that they soon assumed an apologetic appear- 
ance of stags adorned with magnificent antlers, which was amusing. Over- 
coming their humiliation on being anew on all fours, the beasts began to chafe. 
Bushes of prickly nopals were made for attaching to the animals’ tails and hind 
quarters, like the pendent goads to the bulls in the arena. 

When the cattle were finally supplied with these prickles and the wooden 
headgear, they were released of their trammels, and driven forward before a 
crescent-shaped formation of the horsemen, increasing the pace perforce in 
order to keep up with them. Presently, the sparks which had been applied to 
rags round the gummy wood, were fanned into perceptible flames. By the 
time these living candelabra and their remorseless goaders saw the hill of the 
hacienda loom up, the frightened cattle were adorned with long streamers of 
flame. But as they were broadened out into a line, one beside another, there 
was no scare to make them turn back, and their only instinctive hope was to 
continue their mad charge. 

A deep hubbub as of bees around the hive was audible over and above the 
bellowing of these fiery cattle, and a vivid glare seemed to encircle the 
hacienda. 

All at once, a yellow streak rose up in the sky, and a white star shone over the 
buildings and enclosures, and the multitude surging up against the pickets. 
Then the sky was striped luminously once more, but, this time, a rosy glare 
surrounded a red star. 

“ Now we come whooping ! ” shouted Oliver, participating, like even the 
Englishman, in the excitement of this frantic race at the heels of the terrified 


The Pact of Blood. 


99 


bearers of the flames, forming a line of fire of continuous aspect to the Yaguis 
in the hollow. “ Level your lance — no ! draw rein ! draw rein ! and swerve to 
the left! what in thunder is that cry behind us — on the sword-hand? Great 
Jehosaphat ! whar the Old Harry have they sprung up from 1 Apaches, by the 
living thingumbob ! Apaches ! ” 

In plain earnest, the “ hugh-ug-hugh ! ” of the Apaches rang out of the pine 
forest, with an intonation of joy as if the sight of the rockets and the dis- 
closures thereby of the farm which had already been their mark for massacre 
and pillage, had delighted them beyond control. 

Then was heard, too, in a voice quite as gleeful and fiendish, the vociferation 
of a number of white men, in Spanish and in English. 

u Viva ! the Rustlers ! Los Ruidores of Captain Pedrillo for ever!” 

“ The Rustlers ! ” repeated Oregon 01., in perfect stupefaction. “ Open 
your airth and swaller me ! The ’Pache and the skunks they exchanged shots 
with — that shed their blood — ’malgamated, by gum ! take me into a gully an’ 
bury me ! I’m licked ! ” 

Meanwhile, not having the reasons for a halt that had checked the Mexicans 
in the very commencement of a charge, the cattle infuriated with the falling 
sparks from the wood beginning to become detached from their horns, and 
blinded with the smarting smoke, tore down the incline into the very vale 
where the Yaguis were crowded. Certainly their onset would create a con- 
sternation, preventing any attention being bestowed upon Oliver’s little party, 
as it obeyed his earnest injunction and wheeled off into an island of trees. 

In ten minutes, as the dawn grew upon the scene, they could very well 
discern, boldly emerging from the piney woods, not only some of the stragglers 
of the column the Mexicans had discomfited, but two bodies of mounted men, 
together over their own number, whom Oliver recognised as the Apaches and 
the banditti, whom they had left at daggers drawn, or, more exactly, at long 
shots with each other. - 

To explain this unparalleled occurrence in border records, the union of two 
hostile forces in brotherly ties for active operation, we must turn back a few 
pages. 


CHAPTER XXII. 

THE PACT OF BLOOD. 

Behind the fugitives, the rattle of dropping shots had gone on for an hour 
so that Oregon Oliver’s prophecy of the possible duration of such skirmishing 
bid fair to be verified. 

The Indians mode of warfare is to force a retrograde movement by the 
gradual concentration of fire, and at the moment a retreat is begun, whatever 
the cause — strategetic or from pure weakness or cowardice — a charge is made 
by the best warriors in a body, whooping and brandishing their weapons. 

Knowing something of how resistless was such a rush, our old acquaintance 
Don Annibal, alias The Slayer of Seven, was in no humour for awaiting one. 


IOO 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


Already, from the glimpse he had of the young Mexican girl borne away 
among the stampeded horses, his desire for retaliation on Don Benito had 
inspired him with a novel idea; he hoped, against all precedent, to unite the 
Apaches with him in the same purpose. 

It was, indeed, our old acquaintance, the reader will see, perfectly un- 
scrupulous by what means he obtained his ends. 

The miracle to which he owed the preservation of his rascally life had been 
a lesson only for the time being. 

When, plunging off the islet into the Gulf in order to elude the infuriated 
husband of Donna Dolores, the pirate was swimming for an offing, he became 
the aim of more than one shark. Twice he escaped being swallowed more 
or less in the maw of the most swift, for each time he had swerved on one side 
as it blindly turned back downward for the terrible bite. But, when so near 
the shore as to hope for full immunity frerm this living danger at least, one of 
the tintoreras, fearless of the shoaling water, flew forward like a flash of 
lightning, and, amid an eddy of the churning water, poor Matasiete was seized 
by the leg, and suffered the anguish of its being torn from half the thigh. His 
scream was stifled as he was dragged down, and when he arose, he was cast 
upon the strand. With the strength of infernal pain and the madness of 
despair he not only dragged himself up under cover of the mangroves, but 
twisted his cravat as a torniquet around the severed limb. Then he fainted 
away. 

It was not until the morning that the pearl fishers were attracted to him by 
his piteous groans. They had been so generously paid by Mr. Gladsden after 
his securing the treasure that they took great care of the dismembered Mexican, 
believing him one of the brigantine crew, in which belief he took heed not to 
disturb them in his rare lucid moments. They rewarded themselves by 
stripping him and cutting off his silver buttons, and after a few weeks, 
changing their fishing-ground, left him in their best huf. Fever had gone, but 
he was as weak as a child, and for some months seemed able only to crawl 
about. Thus he had ample time for repentance even of so long a career of guilt. 

He was penitent in his helplessness, and had such a man as Father Serafinc 
encountered him then, he might never have recurred to his former life. But 
no one came near the crippled hermit but sea-otter hunters, and pearl and 
whale-fishers, and they were rough, unsympathetic souls, who only landed to 
buy, or take by force, the vegetables which he raised. 

In this way, chained to the spot by his loss of limb, with the perpetual 
presence of the reef where that treasure had been drawn up, to embitter his 
thoughts and his dreams, Matasiete nursed projects of vengance, not merely 
against the Englishman and Don Benito, but against all human kind. 

At last, nearly four years in this almost solitary existence having passed, and 
his little hoard of earnings by the supply of green meat to the whalers swelling 
out so that he feared he would be robbed, he took advantage of the offer of an 
officer of a British man-of-war, surveying the Gulf, to transport him to 
Guaymas. 

People and things had changed there ; the prospect of the railways con- 
necting the port with the United States and Mexico City had galvanised it 
into a life he had never known before. Most of his associates had disappeared ; 
but he found Don Stefano Garcia humbly “clerking it” in a merchant’s, and 
very reticent about a fortnight in the chain-gang, which punishment he had 
undergone for some little playfulness in his banking business. 

Waiy, tenacious, exacting, the returned saheador fastened himself upon the 
clerk and black-mailed him almost daily, spending the extorted money in the 


The Tact of Blood. 


IOI 


sailors’ drinking-dens. At last, seeing that his Old Man of the Sea was 
doomed to be his destruction, Garcia made an effort, gave the robber a large 
sum of money once for all, and started him for the northern interior. The 
former rover of the Sierras had expressed a desire to resume the old life of 
freedom, tempered with depredation and debauchery. 

Soon, indeed, to the nucleus of a few chosen scoundrels with whom he had 
beguiled the intervals between revels and card play in the Guaymas groggeries, 
with stories of the merry life on the prairies, the captain added the floating 
scum of Upper Sonora. But this time he did not hesitate to venture into New 
Mexico and run off cattle from the American settlers. Thus he acquired a 
wider fame than before, and on both sides of the border the One-legged 
Rustler had a price set on his head. 

About a year before, he had an accession to his band in the person of no less 
than the ex-banker, Don Stefano Garcia. That estimable gentleman, from 
forgery to forgery, had contrived to bring the credulous foreign firm that em- 
ployed him to bankruptcy, and, well supplied with funds, thus shamefully 
acquired, was encountered by his old associate gambling it away in the Green 
Ranche. They were scandalous rogues, born to travel in harness, and Garcia 
at once stepped into the lieutenancy of the formidable band. Too corpulent to 
be agile, except in the dance, in which he excelled like most Mexicans, he 
preferred to win by astuteness, and was no more daring when his neck was 
concerned than El Manco himself. 

It was he who earnestly approved his superior’s idea of stopping the desultory 
fighting and becoming friends with the Apaches. For one knew as well as the 
other that they were wolves whose hide would cost dear, and then be worthless. 

The Apaches, as we have elsewhere remarked, are about the most ferocious 
and barbarous nation in the great South-West. Neither Sioux nor Pawnees 
attain their perfection in cruelty, and they are matchless as the Comanches in 
horse-stealing. 

They are tyrants of the wilderness, in short, who see no life worth living 
without murder, pillage, torture, and conflagrations. They make no nice 
distinctions in attacking any beings, white, red, or mixed blood, merely out 
of an implacable hatred for those born beyond their pale. It is said that when 
other supply of foemen fall short, they will quarrel among themselves and cross 
knives in the council lodge itself for the sheer reli h of blood-shedding. 

Such were the demons to whom the Mexican Isnmaei wanted to propose a 
temporary alliance to attack and carry by storm the hacienda of Don Benito 
de Bustamente. 

All at once, therefore. Captain Pedrillo bid one of his men sound, a bugle in 
imitation of the notes of the cry used by the Apaches for “ cease firing ! ” and, 
immediately, one of his lieutenants, risking his life, sprang from behind a tree 
towards the redman, waving a blanket ia a peculiar manner which kept it flat 
but undulating in the air, whilst he shouted “ Paz — peace ! ” As a rule, such 
overtures are disregarded by Indians in combat, but the incertitude about 
their beloved chief made them accept it. Their missiles were no longer 
heard whistling, and, in a few minutes spent in consultation, one of the 
sub-chiefs leaped into the clear ground, and waved a white buffalo robe. 

With bravado, in order to indicate that fear had nothing to do with this 
offering and assent to the truce, both parties showed themselves. 

On the one side, more than a hundred red men appeared, bristling with 
spears and arrows held on the bow, or displaying guns and hatchets. On the 
other, upon an earthwork hastily thrown up with knives, the ruffians presented 
themselves, to the number of sixty at least enveloped in their zarapes, coiled 


102 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


up to protect vital parts of the body, their heads shaded with sombreroes, 
or capped with skins of animals, still showing their teeth and claws ; their 
guns and their machetes gleamed brightly. Both seemed tough morsels, and 
though the Indians uttered no comments on the parade, their glances among 
themselves expressed the same sentiment of admiration which the Mexicans 
muttered. 

The Alferez and the Apache chief slowly advanced, step for step, so as to 
meet midway between the lines ; as they came on nearer and nearer, they threw 
down weapon after weapon so as, at last, when they stood within arm’s length, 
to be totally disarmed, in all appearance. No doubt both had a concealed 
knife, for treachery is always suspected in prairie warfare. 

When they actually met, and the Mexican spokesman had repeated his 
mission to propose peace, on the grounds that there was no quarrel between 
the noble Apaches and the bandits, who were in no way connected with those 
infernal North American heretics who had intruded within the Rancho Verde, 
the Indians made a sign to his friends. Instantly, in a majestic manner, several 
chiefs came forward towards him, a movement imitated by Pedrillo and his 
sub-leaders, and soon the two groups were facing one another. 

Profoundly distrustful, though no weapons were visible, both parties fully 
aware of the rascality of either, the Apaches nevertheless recognised that the 
pair of fugitives who had slain their chief after beating the Rustlers in the 
bar-room, and were speeding away on re-stolen horses, were no friends of the 
Mexicans. The proposal, therefore, that the two forces should unite in their 
mutual hate for the strangers, by whose deeds both suffered, was congenial. 
Always repulsed when they attaoked the fortified houses of the rich farmers, 
the Indians hoped for better results if they were aided by men accustomed to 
fight on foot and to manage a siege. 

Consequently, not ten minutes of explanation had passed before the half 
dozen principals were seated in a circle in the centre of the clearing before the 
smoking ruins of Tio Camote’s luckless hostelry, with the calumet circulating 
for a council. ° 


One little detail had been promptly debated and settled ; apart from the 
bloodshed due to Mr. Gladsden and his hunter guide, five of the Apaches had 
been slain by Mexican bullets, while only three of the bandits had lost their 
lives in the skirmish. Now, inasmuch as the code “ a life for a life,” rules the 
savage practice, the Rustlers owed two lives to the Apaches, who could not 
with a debt of blood unpaid, enter into alliance with the debtors. 

With a shark-like grin, the worthy Captain Pedrillo removed this difficulty. 

There are four of my men, Chief Iron Shirt,” said he, leaning towards the 
successor of Tiger Cat, “ rank weeds, unruly, who have secreted unfair shares 
of plunder, and who contemplate desertion to go to Ures, and, perhaps 
betray me and their valiant comrades to the police. I will arrange, on our 
march, to send them away as a detached scouting party, and your young men 
may take and wear their scalps at their girdles. Four scalps for two lives*' 
applaud my generosity ! ” 

“ !t is a bargain,” said the Apaches, grimly enjoying the joke. 

Iron Shirt was a notorious villain, having twice at least mingled with the 
Cheyennes and passed himself off for one of them in order to obtain from the 
United States agent arms and ammunition which he meant, even as he received 
them with protestations of lip-service, to essay upon the very official who gave 
them. Hence he was the man particularly to appreciate double-dealing and 
app'auo when he was not the dupe. He derived his singular but veritable 
appellation for he is like other characters in our narrative, a figure in border 


The Pact of Blood. 


103 


annals— -not from his ever wearing a shirt of mail, but from his good fortune 
in escaping body wounds. He attributed it to liis “ medicine,” but the white 
hunters thought him very dexterous in the use of the small shield which Indian 
cavalry carry, and which, while not defying a rifle ball, will fend off an arrow 
and stop a revolver bullet. 

The pipe of council went twice around the ring, till Pedrillo spoke again 
from his elevated perch on the horse, the others squatting in the Indian 
fashion. 

“ My Apache brothers are great warriors,” he said, “ so I am wishful to 
prove my esteem for them by having them join me, or taking me a.nd my band 
in conjunction with them,” changing the form of offer on seeing the Indian 
wince in wounded pride, “ to make complete the successful coup which they 
have already struck at the hacienda of the Treasure Hill. This time, my red 
brothers will return to their villages, not merely with a few horses and one 
pale-face girl, but with a long train of mules packed with booty and fifty 
women to sew their clothes, fetch water and cook their meals. The scalps are 
of no value to us, and they will be the Apaches’ prize ! as for the plunder of 
the rich farm, we divide it fairly between us. What does the chief say ?” 

Each of the Apaches answered in order of rank “ it is good ! The chief 
says we will fall on the hacienda in concert, and the plunder will be equally 
shared among the warriors.” 

The settlement of details was made whilst this favourable decision upon the 
preliminaries was carried to the subordinates, interestedly awaiting. General 
satisfaction was manifested, but the wary bandits and redmen took care not to 
mingle or fraternise, save with arms at hand, even where several recognised 
acquaintances and hailed them cordially. 

There was no doubt, as happens with more important treaty-makers in 
Europe, each contracting party reserved in secret the right to keep none of the 
pledges given and to seize the spoil the moment he felt strong enough to defy 
the consequences of such treachery. 

Meanwhile, Pedrillo called for a keg of spirits saved from the wreck of the 
ranche, and all drank to cement the negotiation. 

Tio Camote had emerged from his retreat, and his two bar-tenders, more 
frightened than hurt when the roof collapsed with them, saw the unburnt 
stores of his tavern shared between the allies, as a commencement of their 
active brotherhood, without too much resentment. Forced to enlist actively 
among the banditti lest the rear guard of the Apaches immolated him on the 
smouldering ruins, where their greatest chief was inextricably buried to appease 
his manes, Uncle Sweet-Potato still wondered that he lived and breathed with 
his head thatched as nature provided. As for his assistants, they were high- 
waymen when out of a situation, and they entered the ranks again under 
Pedrillo’s colours without demur. 

Just before sunset, the troops, united in sentiment though divided, as it 
independently pursuing their respective purposes in a parallel course solely by 
accident, took up the ride towards Monte-Tesoro. As they had no doubt that 
the fugitives would be lodged, for Donna Perla’s sake, in her father’s house, 
they had no reason to try to overtake them. 

The first interruption to the rapid progress of the two troops, and at the 
same time the first intimation they had of the revolt of the peons, was theii 
riding into the midst of the column shattered by the sham lancers of Oregon 
Oliver. The severed portions of this column, like one of those fabulous 
serpents which had the power of healing its wounds, and joining its segments, 
had rallied into one mass. The leaders were hesitating on the course to take 


io4 


The Treasure or Pearls . 


when the Mexicans appeared, and they feared a renewal of the disaster. 
Fortunately, before the panic was revived, the Apaches delighted them, for 
they saw friends in men of their colour if not of their race. An under- 
standing was soon arrived at. Needless to say, Pedrillo and Garcia congratu- 
lated themselves on having such allies, and the prospect of overcoming not 
merely the farm of Don Benito, but of many another, made their faces radiant 
with smiles. 

Thus reinforced, the squadrons resumed the advance, followed closely by the 
peons, who derived much enheartenment from such warlike adherents, and, 
passing the detachment from Monte-Tesoro still ensconced in the pine and 
cedar woods, the throng poured into the valley with loud clamour echoed by 
the assembled rebels. This joyous uproar did not tend to reassure the 
beleagured Mexicans, though its cause was not perceptible. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

CANNON IS BROUGHT TO BEAR. 

Long and patiently had the environed garrison been awaiting the token of well- 
faring with the adventurers who had so daringly left that shelter. 

Only in the end of the night had the sudden, and, for the moment, inexplicable 
apparition of the cattle on which had been imposed that fiery burden, seemed to 
reveal the operations of their friends. 

The charge of the furious and panic-stricken creatures, whose hides were singed 
and smoked with a nauseating odour, was unresisted by the rebels, huddled 
together just out of gunshot of the farm, in the obscurity. Nevertheless, as soon 
as the true nature of this attack was clear, and the more active Indians had speared 
those animals which had not broken their necks and extinguished the flames in the 
ditch, the alarm calmed down. It was at this juncture that Don Benito, at the 
head of a hundred horsemen, galloped out of the corral and executed a terrible 
slashing and hewing, sweeping round amid carnage, and returning with insignificant 
loss. The moral effect was even greater than the material, for those of the insurgents 
who had previously thought nothing of rushing up to the fa-rmhouse, and firing a 
shot at random amid tipsy threats and obscene imprecations, withdrew to a safe 
distance, and vociferated for the self-constituted leaders to evince their genius. 

It was as Don Benito’s troop returned within the defences that they heard to their 
dismay, the well-known war-cry of the Apaches only too recently impressed on the 
hearing of all, and the shout of their new-found robber allies. 

Of Oliver, the Englishmen, and their followers, no intelligence whatever It is 
only doing the master of the farm justice, as well as his family, to say that dee D 
distress was added to that they felt in their plight with the fear that their darin- 
friends had all fallen into some trap of the cunning savages now foremost in 
t > "<-'t!on, 

auu>ra a PP<*red, and the whole valley was revealed, full of the rebels, amongst 


Camion is brought to Bear. 


10 5 


whom was added, as well as the sixty marauders who held Captain Pedrillo as 
chief, the full hundred Apaches, whose proud and domineering carriage defined 
them from the Yaguis born under the yoke which these had never experienced. 
Besides, before the heat of the day forced both besiegers and besieged to take a siesta, 
the already enormous concourse was swollen by the last fragments of the dispersed 
column finding their way thither, burdened with plunder. 

Ail the morning had passed in rash and irregular attacks on the houses, but when 
they were not repulsed, the few score Indians who clambered over the stockade were 
cut down by the horsemen inside. Twice the Apaches had charged up to the walls, 
but, apparently, merely to test the watchfulness of the inmates and the range of their 
firearms, for they made no assault on the palissades, to pull and hack at which, or 
even more to alight and clamber over, would have been ignoble in a horse Indian. 

Still no sign of the party that had sallied forth. 

Successful in that sally of their own, the Mexican gentlemen wished to retaliate 
on the Apaches in particular for the insult implied in their departing from their 
war custom of never charging an enclosure or building of any kind. But Don 
Benito reminded them of the ladies who would be undefended if the horsemen were 
cm off, and pointed to the swarms of carousing Indians blackening the rising 
ground, where they had mounted to watch the farm with lustful gaze. 

Little by little, after Pedrillo and his mongrels had quieted the hatred of the 
revolted Yaguis for any one who reminded them of the superior race, he obtained a 
kind of rule over their leaders, only less potent than that which they had promptly 
accorded the Apaches. Iron Shiit was an idol. The fact of his having but three 
days before swept down upon that same stronghold still defying their hosts, and 
snatched the proprietor’s daughter and the cream of the horses meriily away, sufficed 
to make each of these warriors to he followed by a tag-rag of open-eyed Yaguis 
wherever they strayed in the wide encampment. 

The food and liquor were placed under guard ; the drunkards, who were plunged in 
stupor, were bundled into the hollows out of the way, the horse-thieves who had been 
racing about were pulled off the bare backs, and made to squat down and await 
orders for their superabundant energy to be more profitably expended. The weapons 
were served out anew, with some discrimination as to the bearer, so that the strong 
were no longer puzzled with arms for which light-handed urchins sufficed, and the 
youths disembarrassed of immense spears like Goliath’s, and clubs that the famous 
"giant races of the Hidden Cities could alone have swung. 

The women and children, too, were pushed bick, and set to cooking and other 
menial offices, which must have bewildered them as to the advantages of revolution. 

Ttx refore, Oliver and his associates soon beheld the impass ible barrier spread 
out broadly between them, and the surrounded fort became during the day more 
and more formidable by these evidences of discipline. 

Happily their neighbourhood was not suspected. The column defeated on the 
previous night was composed of ignorant boors, who thought not at all by day to 
give an intelligible account of the lancers, who, indeed, having charged them from 
the ambus'n, were not well examined in the hurry-scurry. 

*■ What are they waiting for ? ” queried Mr. Gladsden, impatiently. “ Surely not 
for more reinforcements, when they are already a-hundred to one ! ” 

“Thar’s the answer,” said the white hunter. “Yon long string of naked 
copperskins dragging that shining object at their tail.” 

“ A cannon ? ” 

“ Yes 1 two shots o’ that and thar will be a hole in the farmhouse that a herd of 
buffalo might traverse. Good night to our hidalgo if they get that piece trained on 
the house. When a bullet hits those grey blocks, hewn out of the volcano pumice- 
stone, it will crumble like glass, and no two ways about it. The casa is a case.” 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


io 6 


“ And can we do nothing, absolutely nothing ? Can we not even pierce that 
multitude, and enter among our friends and die with them.” 

“ Well, I like a gentleman that has boys in the tender leaf still, a-talking of 
dying anywhar’s and so airly yit. Ef you hanker to run the resk o’ dying, that’s a 
man’s talk, and you can volunteer to come along with me.” 

“ Come along with you, Oliver ? ” 

“ Y es. If that cannon fires twice into that house, I tell ’ee, thar’ll be nothing but 
the worst kind of smashed fruit that ever figgered in an old aunty’s preserve -pots. 
They may fire her off once, but not twice, if I hev’ the right sort of luck in my idee. 
I think this sport hes gone quite far enough.” 

By this time Mr. Gladsden had become reconciled to Oliver having “ idees.” 

“ I am with you,” he simply said, “ and the moie desperate the enterprise, the 
better it bids to quiet my blood, which is at boiling point.” 

“ You’ll hev’ all the despiritness you want,” answered the Oregonian. 

Then, turning to the Mexicans, who had waited the conclusion of their dialogue 
restlessly, he continued : 

“ Whar’s them sky-rockets ? hand ’em here, Silvano. Keep close as you hev’ done 
all along. When you see those fireworks cavorting (curvetting) around that big 
camp right smart, you sail in down the hill and stick' every red nigger till you are 
right up to the house, if your heart backs your breast bone so far. And mark ! your 
government offers two hundred and fifty dollars for Injin scalps, and you kin have 
my share this trip, and welkim 1 ” 

His speech was received with enthusiasm, notably the peroration. He illustrated 
his intention to make scalps by throwing off his uniform coat, cutting his shirt- 
sleeves off at the shoulder, and removing the spurs which he had donned for the ride. 
Then he took up a handful of live-oak leaves, bruised them, and dyed his bared arms, 
neck and face with the juice to a brown hue. At his suggestion, the Englishman 
left his arms free and disguised his fairness of hue in the same manner. 

“ Do you see that rising ground up which they are toiling with that big gun ? 
That’s our aim. Come on 1 ” 

“ In the midst of them ? ” 

“ Plum centre.” 

Which was all the reply the query elicited. 

The Yaguis occupied the further side of a long valley } almost in an unbroken 
mass. Those who elsewhere completed an environment of the hacienda were in 
groups, which changed position at fancy, and were less warlike than the main body. 
The rear was left to a natural guard ; the inaccessibility of the hill, where, too, a 
barranca, or deep chasm, with perpendicular sides, caused by a torrent suddenly 
cutting ns way to a subterranean reservoir, almost at right angles, divided the 
incline. 

The watch, as is common with a sudden gathering, was nobody’s business 

The Apaches and the Mexican half-breeds, self-constituted chiefs, were now 
scattered among the Yaguis, teaching the handling of weapons and promising them 
all manner of delights when the farm should be captured. 

Oregon Ol. and his associate struck from the wood which concealed their com- 
panions, away at first from the valley, but on arriving fairly upon the north side, 
they advanced parallel with its crest, every now and then perceiving a flao- waving 
on top of the hacienda. The ground was so rough that they had alternations of 
leaps and creeps over obstacles of which the hunter made light, but which delayed 

the Englishman. On reaching the gorge, the former paused to admit of the other 
coming up. 


“ Thar’s our route,” said the hunter, pointing 
along its incline upward, “ We kin settle down 


down into this open tunnel and 
to a long scramble, but all the 


Cannon is brought to Bear , 


107 


way thar’ll be no alarms ‘ f those rum-soakers haven’t a good eye among the 
heap.” 

“ That is the more gratifying, as there are enough of them to convert us into a 
pair of pin-cushions with their arrows.” 

Nevertheless, he could not help a shiver of repugnance to adventuring at such a 
risk. 

“ I do not say we could do it by night, for down thar the twilight allers dwells, 
save whar the line of sun -glare travels at the bottom. But thar is nfl other road.” 

They spent a few moments in further disguise, removing or staining with red 
oxides every part of their remaining attire and exposed skin which would not favour 
the supposition to a chance observer that they were Indians floundering in the abyss 
where they had blundered during intoxication. They were armed only with knives 
and revolvers, but each carried one of the rockets. 

They proceeded to descend the steep up and down side with all the precaution 
requisite. Difficult was not the word for their task, for none but a maniac or a 
lover or such as these staking all on the chance of being infinite service to their 
fellows, would have hazarded themselves. 

The descent was a series of slides, checked by dwarf shrubs and rocks of all 
imaginable forms, cut, ground, polished, jagged by the water and sand ; now and 
then, without any warnings, there were cracks and holes three or four yards wide at 
the remote bottom of which was to be heard a melancholy soughing and roaring as 
of raging demons or oppressed souls. Out of several, a thick, noisome, warm 
vapour sluggishly oozed. Once, when they had hardly succeeded in crossing a part 
of which the rim was of crumbling sand, Oliver had made a remark on the judicious- 
ness of his comrade awaiting him there, but the answer was so stern and impreg- 
nated with such resolution that he never again remonstrated. 

At last the centre of the trough was attained. 

But here the chaos of sand, shrubs, and rocks, became next to inextricable, and 
to proceed up through the hindrances, varying each instant in material but not in 
degree, would have been pronounced simply preposterous by the most exacting. 

Nevertheless, Oliver was a man whom nothing could stop in his purpose, for he 
twined in and out, crawled as supple as a serpent, thought nothing of his hands and 
knees exposed to the adamantine sands and the harsh cat-claw bushes that would 
have frightened the half-naked savages, and if oftimes he was compelled to re- 
trace his steps when he had ventured into a non-egress, it was only the better to 
resume his unwearied way. 

“ I’m no hog,” growled he once, when he paused to suck a more than usually deep 
briar scratch which he believed poisonous, “ and I know when I hev’ my fill o’ sich 
: snaking,’ but it’s got to be did. Besides,” looking up from the semi-obscurity to 
the top of the gorge where the sky glowed the more gorgeously by contrast, “ night 
must not catch us no farther up, and agen,” sniffing like an old sailor, “ ain’t thar 
rain in the air ? ” 

“ I am stifled with the sulphur reeking out of these cracks,” returned his com- 
panion; “ on this roof of Old Nick’s kitchen, I really am not aware I have a nose 
upon me for weather-scenting.” 

Oliver grunted as a kind of quiet laugh, and on he scrambled. 

At the same time that one would have deemed all his faculties absorbed in picking 
the course and caring for his own safety, the hunter found time, not merely to cau- 
tion his comrade, but to intervene at moments of peril. This constant attention in 
safe-keeping once even almost led to his losing his life or limbs, for in choosing for 
himself the wider part of a crack, the edge gave way all together, and but for 
Gladsden clutching by the side, with a little fold of the skin, too, in the grasp, the 
hunter must have fallen within the crust. 


io8 


The Treasure of Pearls, 


“ Thank’ee, pard. ! ” observed the guide, wincing comically; “ that time you grabbed 
flesh and ha’r. A little more of sich a grip, an’ you’d hev’ had to leave me behind, 
sot here ; on my hind legs, a-howling ! ” 

At last, after nearly twice the three hours assigned too rashly for the whole effort 
had been spent in scaling the anfractuosities at which a mountain sheep would have 
baulked, they had at all events ascended the barranca and were under the centre ot 
the part of the hill where the Yaguis had dragged an old forty-pounder, brought over 
by the conquerors, and for long rusting at some farm in the neighbourhood. Their 
rejoicing at the accomplishment of their work coincided so closely with that of the 
two white men that the latter smiled to be so indirectly cheered. 

Stopping to tal^e breath, they looked back with relief and pride at the horrible 
gulfy path which they had overcome, darkening into blackness with the failing light. 

Whilst the cannon was placed on some logs so that it could be trained on 
the hacienda, to the level of which this hill almost rose, the Yaguis were silent, 
so interested were they in the operation superintended by Lieutenant Garcia, 
inflated into abnormal pomposity by becoming the cynosure. 

“ Up! ” said Oliver in this silence. 

They had the abrupt side to climb when they would be beside the amateur artil- 
lerists. After what they had overcome this affair was merely one of time. The 
brink of the barranca was armed by stony mounds and the wrecks of half-a-dozen 
pines of the giant species, which must have been an imposing sight for miles around 
before the lightning or the tempest shattered them. Ensconced in this natural barri- 
cade, not more than three hundred feet from the nearest of the foe, they could easily 
take the repose they deserved, whilst studying the scene and the actors. 

On their front, to the right, the hacienda and its corrals, into which they could 
gaze across the gully ; farther away the forest where the Mexican detachment lay. 
Beside them, the hill covered with the insurgents, and more and still more of them in 
the vales. Disseminated thus, they seemed a veritable swarm of locusts, such as 
covers the plains of Arizona and Colorado. 

They recognised without difficulty Captain Pedrillo on his horse, with his wooden 
leg sticking out and twitching free of the stirrup; the Apache chiefs, knowing 
nothing about ordnance, left the Mexicans to manage the loading of the cannon 
with blasting powder. A pile of the powder-cans, some partly open and some al- 
together stove in and lid'ess, with all the carelessness of the inexperienced, stood near 
the piece on its wooden frame ; at that distance the Englishmen could even see the 
brand on the tins of the sun in glory of the Ray o del Sol Mining Company, from the 
w’orks of which, by Regulus Pueblo, they had been taken by its truant ore-carriers. 

Darkness fell, deeper than usually, which confirmed Oliver in his forecast as to a 
tempest approaching, but the peons worked on at the clumsy pedestal of the cannon 
by the flare of torches. 

Seeing that the piece would surely be in place, Captain Pedrillo, Iron Shirt, and 
the Apache sub-chiefs went into a large tent on the brow of the hill. It was open 
on the face towards the hacienda above, and consequently they were no longer 
visible to the two adventurers, who could see only the guard of Indians at the 
same point. 


CHAPTER XXIV.. 

THE UNWILLING VOLUNTEER. 

It had fallen a very black night, we say. Not a star peeped out among the heavy 
clouds grazing the tree-tops and rim of the bowl in the centre of which Monte-Tesore 
flaunted its defiant colours. In the northward, long peals of thunder rolled without 
any lightning being visible. 

Whether from the effect of the atmosphere, or by the presentiment of the assault 
by the multitude of besiegers being imminent, a kind of gloom seemed to reign in 
the hacienda ; the courts were deserted, the sentries were almost unseen, and their 
“ all’s well ” but feebly re-echoed along the barriers. Not one light sparkled at an 
apeiture to cheer the two watchers on the hill in the heart of the hostile camp. 

On the other hand, without, at fires kindled far enough away not to expose the 
crowds encircling them to gunshot, the rebels noisily kept holiday, shouting and 
cheering and singing. 

In the tent, formed of curtains and carpets thrown over supports of tree-stems, 
erected with all the ingenuity of a people expert by tradition in hut-building, the 
three chiefs of the allied foes of Sonora were in conference. 

Each had already gained a hold on the masses, — the Apache by having shown 
with his handful of warriors that the Mexicans could be bearded in their houses ; 
the Mexican by his notorious feud with the farmer gentry ; and Juan, the Yagui, by 
having accumulated these hordes, after having excited them to throw off the yoke. 

Furthermore, the latter had brought the cannon and suggested its employment 
against the farm-building ; and Iron Shirt had distinguished himself in all the 
charges up to the very pickets, harassing the Mexicans till they were no doubt weary 
from want of rest. 

All the tendency of their conversation was towards taunting the one-legged robber- 
chieftain for his backwardness in the attack. 

Suddenly the Mexican, who had borne the inuendoes with deep philosophy, as 
he smoked a cigarette or two. lifted his head, and listening, said : 

“ I know that step ! It is my spy’s ! Now, perhaps, I shall show you what 
manner of man is el Manco.” 

There was a slight exchange of questions and answers between the guards of 
the tent, and then the three leaders beheld a dark figure’s outlines against the sky. 

It was a peon, apparently. 

“ Speak,” said Captain Pedrillo, as the Indian bowed low, “we three are one to 
hear you.” 

“ Your excellency,” began the slave in a low, clear voice, eking out his story with 
signs, which were clearer to the comprehension of Iron Shirt than his speech, “ I 
have penetrated the farm even to the gar Jens.” 

“ Ah ! ” cried the peon leader and the robber in a breath, whilst the Apache’s 
eyes gleamed transiently and gleefully. 

“ I have found a secret gate in the palissade. One or two men, even mounted 
ones, would not be remarked, for the watches are worn out by the day’s guard. In 
truth, a mounted man would be thought, once within the corral, one of their officers. 
Thence, one can ride into the garden where the ladies take the air. I am sure,” 
added he, with ferocity, “ that if we had half-a-dozen of us in their midst, while our 
brothers attacked the hacienda on all sides, that the defenders would be so distracted 
by their shrieks and the war-whoops that we would master the place in a twinkling.” 

“ You hear? ” said the Mexican, complacently. “ We might have hammered our 
fists sore on the gate and made no headway. But thanks to my emissary, Juan-—” 

“ Diego — 


IIO 


The Treasure of Pearls < 


“ Diego, then ; we can have the cursed proprietors at a disadvantage. He shall 
lead a small force into the heart of the fortress during this night. Then let the 
sound of our cannon, hurling its huge balls into the doomed dwelling, be their signal 
to seize the women enjoying the shade and shelter, and ours to assail the same from 
every quarter.” 

The Apache was not enthusiastic, and the peon was suspicious. 

“ He was a servant there,” explained Captain Pedrillo, hastily, noticing how little 
his agent and his project were approved. “ Don Benito had him flogged for some 
peccadillo, and he has loved him, thirsted to show his love for the family ever since.” 

The rebel leader grinned at the sarcasm ; it opened an old sore. 

“That is different,” said he. “ Diego, ycu are welcome now : and yet/’ he went 
on, “ Diego is Indian, yes ; peon, yes ; but Yagui, no 1 ” 

“ It is true, I am not a Yagui,” answered the other, with some pride, “ but I am 
a Mayo. My people hunted over this ground, hither and thither, from the sea to 
the Aztec’s land, from the Smoking Mountain to the Pimas’ cornfields; but now, 
their bow is broken, their gold gilds the spurs of the Spaniard. Diego stands 
alone ; the last of the Mayos is the pointing-dog of the Y aguis, the Apaches, and the 
Foe-to-all-men.” 

He locked his hands, and, bowing, remained like a statue before the trio. 

“ Good 1 ” said the Apache, “ we are born diverse, but hatred makes us brothers. 
I will bring a chosen band to the secret gate.” 

“ And I,” said the peon leader, will set my brothers on the alert to attack the 
farm at every point.” 

“ And I will manage the great gun,” said Pedrillo, pleased at how patly things 
were falling. “ Here upon the hill ’■ 

“Out of shot?” sneered Juan. “No! your Mexicans can manage the cannon. 
You are the gentleman to handle the ladies with gloves; you, captain, will accompany 
the spy.” 

“ But I cannot move out of the saddle.” 

“ But you heard Diego say a mounted man will be taken for one of their own 

officers ” 

“ Still ” 

“ It is well,” interrupted Iron Shirt ; “ my brother the Yagui prepares to hurl his 
brothers on the pickets, whilst I and mine await at the gate. The captain will go 
with the Mayo, and when the big gun is fired, we all set to our work. It is spoken, 
the council is broken up.” 

He rose. The Yagui bowed, accustomed already to yield immediately to the 
superior ever* free Indian, and the Mexican concealed his disgust at being 
overruled. 

There was a brief silence, during which Diego quitted the tent, though remaining 
still in view, just outside, apparently regarding the stronghold and not listening to 
the chiefs. 

The storm was fast approaching, for the lightning was visible, and the thunder 
was borne on gusts which gave a damp feeling, though no rain had fallen yet. 

“ Just the night for a surprise,” remarked the Yagui, assuming to the best of his 
ability the air of one experienced in warfare. 

“It is good,” added the Apache, examining his weapons, conscientiously. 

The Mexican looked from one to the other with diminishing hesitation. 

“ Good or not,” said he, abruptly, “ I see no harm in our taking precautions.” 

The Apache paid no attention ; he was fine-edging his knife on a small piece of 
Arkansas whetstone which he carried in a satchel at his side among other little tools 
and his talismans. The Yagui, however, looked over at the speaker inquiringly. 

“ 1 want a few of my men to come with me. They know my ways — I knowlheirs.” 


The Unwilling Volunteer. 


hi 


Juan consulted Iron Shirt with a glance and then nodded carelessly. 

“ Let me have Garcia before me, my alferez.” 

He stepped to the opening, and blew a silver whistle hanging by a chain of the 
same metal around his long neck. Presently, the Mexican whom he thus summoned 
came striding to his commander. 

“ Stefano,” said the latter, loudly enough for the others to hear, “ I believe you are 
devoted to me ? ” 

“ I ought to be,” was the answer, “ for I should have been hanged three months 
ago but for your honour plucking me out of the calaboose of Concha Village. Since 
then I have been your trustiest lieutenant, I take it.” 

‘ You have. Well, I am going on a forlorn hope, but a brave man thinks nothing 
of risking his life when the reward is great. I am go ng almost alone into the 
hacienda, with our Apache brothers, under the guidance of our faithful peon yonder.” 

“ Ah 1 ” cried the ex-banker, incredulously. 

“ I shall be in the heart of the fortalice, in the gardens, where the ladies recreate 
out of the reach of arrows, but not safe from the ball from our cannon. Now, as a 
gallant gentleman, Stefano, do not, in aiming at the house, fling your ball in among 
the dames.” 

“ I won’t, captain, all the less likely, as I mean to aim at the building low down. 
The ball will play prettily with the foundation stone and the don’s imported Spanish 
wines — more the pity.” 

“ Then, if the ladies are safe,” began the Mexican, relieved partly of his fears, 
“ there’s no more to be said.” 

“ The house is my mark, rest tranquil, your excellency.” 

“ Very well,” sighed Pedrillo, drawing his false leg out of the hole which he had 
deeply drilled in the earth in his agitation. “ I no longer have any uneasiness. 
Now, let me have six men for my expedition.” 

“ You can have six rogues, who will go anywhere under the leadership of La 
Chupa ” 

“ Stay ; no, I would rather have your kinsman, Zagal, to be at their head.” 

“ My cousin ? This is a grievous slur on a caballero to choose his kinsman as a 
kind of hostage, but ’tis war time and we must act like warriors. Zagal shall 
accompany you, captain, as you please. Have no fear that I shall scalp him with a 
cannon shot,” said Garcia with a laugh. “ He owes me forty odd dollars, to be 
paid out of our plunder of the hacienda. Your honour is safe next him.” 

This arrangement completed, the captain had to go forth. He looked to a brace 
of revolvers in his sword-belt, to the sabre that it should play freely, put on a poncho , 
lined with india-rubber against the rain, and hobbled altogether from the tent. The 
peon guide awaited him, and lent him his shoulder on his lame side till he had 
mounted his horse. Already the Indians, to the number of fifty, were in the saddle; 
they had removed everything of a light colour or that glittered, and had chosen 
whole-coloured horses with a dark skin. 

« Hasten down the hill,” said Pedrillo, as his half-a-dozen rogues galloped up 
into the troop, “ the storm will be on us in ten minutes, confound it ! and all noc- 
turnal excursions ! ” 

Indeed, they were hardly out of the hollow, and mounting the slope which gradu- 
ally brought them to the level of the farmhouse, before they were deluged with rain. 
Fortunately the lightning was flashing on the other side of the pine forest, where the 
detachment from the besieged were gladly sheltering themselves, and no glimmer 
fell upon the cavalcade. The Apaches’ bodies cast off the wet like ducks’ plu- 
mage, whilst the thick blankets of the Mexicans were as serviceable as the chief 
salteador’s waterproof. 

The ditch was brimming with water, so much so as to be on the overflow at one 


1 1 2 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


or two places where the peons had wantonly breached it, and the rippling of the 
waste water was quite noisy. Two of the Indians swam the moat as easily as 
beavers, plied their hatchets dexterously in the mud till a shelving landing-place was 
formed, and there the troop executed a passage. To ride up to the very stockade, of 
which the height prevented even a horseman being perceived from the house, though 
not from a sentinel on the enclosure, was no difficult task. 

All remained as gloomy as silent. Beyond doubt, the falling rain had pelted the 
watchmen into nooks. 

Suddenly three figures started up under the very heads of the foremost horses. 

“ Stay,” said Diego, “ they are peons. Yagui ? ” 

“ Yagui ! ” was the answei. 

“ What news ? ” 

“ Nothing.” 

“ Where is the gate I found, and which I cannot surely lay my hand upon now in 
the wet ? ” 

“ Here.” 


CHAPTER XXV. 

THE LOYALTY OF THE APACHE. 

‘This is the gate,” said the Mayo Indian, touching the palissades. “ See, it moves 
at a pressure. Now, who comes ? ” 

The captain shuddered, he knew not why, as the secret piece in the stockade 
yawned ajar. 

“ We await,” said Iron Shirt, laconically, pointing to his followers, who were 
huddling up against the long wall, and taking advantage of every irregularity in its line. 

“ You await? Here? ” cried the robber, astounded, “ you never mean to say you 
are not going to accompany me now that you see the way is unimpeded ? ” 

“ Here we await,” replied the Apache, firmly, “ till we hear the war-cry of the 
Foe-to-all-Men. When the Legless Man sends up the whoop for reinforcements, 
the Apaches will dash in and succour him.” 

“ But, chief ” 

“ The chief has spoken, and his tongue is tired of talk.” 

“ Well, if it is no avail remonstrating with the great warrior,” replied Pedrillo, 
grumbling to himself, “ hang him for an obstinate red devil ! On, come on,” he 
added, to his own five men and their corporal, as reluctant as himself, on seeing 
the Apaches leave them to their own valour, and he pushed them before him roughly 
with his horse’s shoulder. 

The Mexicans had all dismounted, not having his reason for keeping in the 
saddle, and noiselessly stole in at the opening after the red-skinned pilot. 

The little party were within the corral. 

“ To mark the place of this gate,” said the salteador, “ two of you remain here.” 

“ Good,” said Diego, who pushed the gate shut, whereupon so neatly was it con- 
trived that, particularly in such absence of light, the joining place of the edges was 
not perceptible. 

“ Deuce take you — what’s that for ? ” cried the robber, suspiciously. 

“ Not to arouse observations if a keen eye follows the line of the fences,” 
replied the Mayo. “ Your men plainly denote the spot, if we must retreat.” 


The Loyalty of the Apache. 


ii3 


“That is true,” rejoined the valiant captain, but not in atone of assurance, 
whilst his men looked downhearted at one another, and enviously at the couple left 
behind. 

However, with the Apaches at hand, a retreat without striking a blow would 
probably have caused a dispute which would have imperilled their unholy 
alliance ; and had as the prospect was, at least the Mexicans might show a 
fellow-countryman quarter, while the Indians would surely not spare the turncoat 
whites. 

After all, so far the smoothness of the entry promised fairly, and to have to do 
with twenty gentlewomen was no formidable matter. 

“ On ! ” said he, impatiently, twitching up his wooden leg so that it seemed to 
point the way. 

They crossed the enclosure, and reached the second wall without a challenge, 
over a ground eight inches deep in water, in the depressions caused by horses’ 
hoofs, and rude cart wheels. 

Diego scrambled up the pickets like a cat. He almost instantly dropped down, 
and said, in an ordinary tone — 

“ Not a head along the wall far or near.” 

“ They have drawn in their sentries,” said Zagal, a quick -eyed, nimble half- 
breed, “ or they have fallen back under the verandah for protection. It’s quite right 
of rhem. I would not put a dog out this weather.” 

“ Bah,” returned the captain, eager to believe the coast was clear of sharpshooters, 
and well defended by his waterproof, “war-dogs should disregard the rain. As I 
cannot leap my horse over those pikes, suppose you find the gate.” 

The Mayo had already groped along the corral, and unexpectedly the gate was 
opened by him. With a few strokes of his knife he had cut the raw hide thongs 
that served as fastenings and were relaxed by the wet. 

“ Let two of you stay here,” said Pedrillo, before following the others through. 

Then he pushed his horse between the main post and the gate held half open by 
Diego. 

He and his three trusty rogues were before the house, which loomed up large at 
the end of the long, wide enclosure. 

The thunder was dying away, and the swishing of the rain in the puddles and 
against the palissades seemed lessening in intensity. Certainly, the sentries were 
removed, and the building was silent as a mausoleum. 

Nevertheless, they durst not directly cross the open spaces, but skirted the stockade 
until they could move forward in the cover of outbuildings which favouied a zigzag 
advance. 

In this manner they attained a brick wall, where Diego halted them with his 
uplifted hand. 

“ The garden,” he whispered. 

By all these movements an hour and a half had elapsed. They were so close to 
the house that the windows were seen to be outlined here and there by the glow 
around the edges of the sashes and, through insect protectors of gauze, from subdued 
lights within. 

All seemed asleep. 

“ We might have taken the hacienda,” observed Captain Pedrillo, vexedly. “ But 
those poltroon redskins hung back.” 

“ Nay,” replied the Mayo, shaking his head. “ They are on their guard within, 
never fear. There is only one weak point, and that I am showing to your honour.” 

With his knife, the Indian’s tool of all work, he severed the wooden bolt of a door 
in the wall, and burst it open from a hasp within by a steady pressure of the 
shoulder. He drew on one side, after pushing it open, in respect. The glimpse 


The Treasure of Pearls . 


114 


within was purely of a black den where wet vines and nodding plants glistened 
dully of the pouring shower. 

“ Thank you,” said the captain, “ for myself and band. But just you go in and 
scout about first. So far we have done a deed of daring ; to run our heads into the 
wolf’s very jaws smacks of rashness.” 

Diego plunged into the doorway in a cautious manner. 

“ What do you think of all this, Zagal? ” inquired the Mexican chief quickly. 

‘‘That we ought to have carried fifty pounds of that blasting powder each man, 
and we could have blown the hacienda into mud-pies ! What a chance to miss ! ” 

“ Very true,” said the captain, pretending to see the venture in the same way. “ I 
wish we had the affair to begin all over again : I should act in a very different way.” 

In the next instant the Indian reappeared. 

‘‘The garden is deserted. Not so much as a horned owl drowned out of its nest,’’ 
he said. 

“Ah!” sighed Pedrillo, like a martyr; “let us go on. Only one of you remain 
at this post, his foot in the doorway, holding the door close, but not letting it shut, 
on his life.” 

The horseman, the Indian, and ihe two other Mexicans then invaded the garden. 
Pedrillo shook with eager heroism so that his steed participated in the tremor. It 
was a night, and the garden a place to inspire terror, even in the breast least timid, 
one must grant. 

The garden was a maze designed after some labyrinth in a Spanish palace 
grounds, and rendered more bewildering by the luxuriant growth of the plants and 
shrubbery chosen to form the inter-volutions. 

It angered El Manco very much that Zagal would not regard the affair with his 
own eyes, but persisted in cherishing the plan. 

“ What a splendid spot for an ambush,” said he. “ The keenest eye cannot 
perceive any of us, even your excellency on the horse’s back.’’ 

“ So be it,” answered the captain testily. “ Take your nestling places, then, at 
least till after this clearing-off shower. What a swamping ! ’Sdeath of my life ! 
I do not blame the men of Don Benito for keeping indoors.” 

Diego pointed out a species of alcove of verdure into which he backed his horse, 
equally grateful for shelter in the worst torrent of all that had fallen. 

Diego, grinning and showing shark teeth, stood at the mouth of this bay, lashed by 
the swinging vines and lianas, eyeing the sky and listening attentively to all sounds, 
quiet as a statue. 

After that waterspout, the tempest fled with haste, sweeping away all the gloomy 
clouds. 

Out of the sky of deep blue suddenly sparkled a myriad of stars. The moon, 
too, presented a pale face in a watery vapour, which gave an effect of mirage as if 
it had a misty partner and the two were slowly dancing. 

The atmosphere became of singular limpidity, and the smallest leaves and the 
flower-cups so tiny that only the humming-birds’ bills could pierce their hollow, 
were discernible at a distance. Thousands of gnats and musquitoes swarmed out 
of their retreats and played in the moonlight like motes in the solar beams. The earth 
began to smoke with vapour, and the flowers exhaled oppressive wealth of perfumes. 

The captain, galvanised by the fresh morning breeze, for it must have been about 
three o’clock, was about to call his men for a consultation, when on each side of 
him he felt a figure rise, and in each of his leather cheeks was pressed the muzzle 
of a pistol. At the same time, his arms were grasped and pressed down by his 
sides. Another pair of hands seized each leg, real and fictitious, and lifting him 
up, he was held in the air like a puppet, whilst the traitorous Diego drew the horse 
out from under him. Then nis unknown seizers lowered him to the ground, in the 


The Loyalty of the Apache. 


”5 


foftness of which his stump was deeply embedded, and a low but firm voice 
muttered in his ear : 

“ No nonsense, or you are a dead man before being justly hanged ! ” 

Some stiffed oaths and cries, at the same time as a scuffle, betokened that his 
followcis were being mastered in the like manner. Only the horrid grating of a knife 
along a bone, and a deep groan or two proved that Zagal or another had offered 
such a manful resistance as their captain well heeded not to attempt. 

Two men took the salteador between them, bending like a sack of grain, and 
carried him, heels first, in that ignominious attitude, through the maze, which was no 
puzzle to them, into the house over the porch and in at a window from the verandah. 
The room into which he was transported was that where Mr. Gladsden had been 
entertained. Don Benito, his son, and another gentleman, chiefs of the defensive 
operations, were there seated. Two lamps, burning low, were quickly turned up on 
the arrival of the prisoner, evidently expected. His carriers were two Mexicans of 
strong build, armed to the teeth, who set him in an armchair, confronting their 
master, and stood, one each side of him, pistols still in hand. 

For a moment Don Benito and his captive looked at one another. Hatred and 
anguish at having been thus placed before his old enemy gave the former Don 
Annibal the impudence nor to quail. 

“ My so-called captain,” said the haclendero, “ you are my prisoner.” 

“ By the cursedest treachery,” returned Pedrillo, bitterly and really burning with 
indignation. 

“ Which trick has only prevented you attempting a more shameful deed against 
women and children of your own race — a race that repudiates such as you, 
though.” 

“ I am a volunteer frontier guard,” rejoined the free-lance, still more impudently. 
“ If it were not for my band doing soldierly duty along the border, your houses, your 
sheep, your cattle, your families would not be safe.” 

“Trash 1 ” returned Don Benito. “ You are an ally of the redskin murderers, not 
their repressor.” 

“ This is the first time I have ever been hand in hand with them,” went on 
Pedrillo, pleading direct to the third Mexican whom he knew to be a rich proprietor. 

* They have forced me to act with them. When one is among wolves, he must howl 
with them.” 

*• A wolf howls with wolves, but a dog dies battling with them,” retorted Senyor 
Bustamente. 

Diego entered the room at this juncture, 

“ Well ? ” demanded the haciendero. 

“One dead with his own knife in his heart; one wounded with a pistol-shot 
which went off in the folds of his blanket, the other safe and sound,” reported the 
false guide. 

“ This Indian will bear me out that I entered on the mad enterprise reluctantly,” 
began the bandolero in a less firm voice. 

“ This Indian Diego knows you of old, and I advise you not to require a character 
from him. In the time when you resumed your old craft of piracy and attacked me 
in the Gulf, this Indian and his father scuttled your steamer, effectually executing 
that diversion which prevented your crew' from overwhelming my brave friend.” 

Captain Pedrillo rewarded the Mayo w ith a malignant look. If he had only have 
suspected this before when he had him in his camp. Whilst he ground his teeth 
and jerked his stump nervously, his judge pursued: 

“ I have had you decoyed out of your forces that the savages may not have the 
benefit of your cultured cunning. You deserve death a hundred fold for warring 
against Mexico, and that death should be the traitor’s— that by the ignoble rope. But 


The Treasure, of Pearls . 


Ii6 


I have no hangman’s noose here ; you are going to be honoured with the soldier’s 
fate — you shall only be shot ! ” 

“ Beware! ” said Pedrillo, stoutly, though his heart sank ; “ this house is surrounded 
by a multitude like the waves of a sea. When the assault is made for which the signal 
is the crushing shot of an enormous cannon being levelled hereon under cover of the 
stormy darkness, you will be inundated by the sands of a desert storm. My murder 
will be avenged on each of you, your wives, your daughters and your sons and 
servants, over and over again ! ” 

“Thanks for the caution, but we mean to sell our lives and our dear ones’ honour 
most dearly. Meanwhile, you will be shot. Take the carrion hence to the room 
where Father Serafino will try to soften his hard heart, and then lead him out to 
execution.” 

The cold, stern sentence annihilated the salteador’s insolence. His hands dropped 
and hung each side of the armchair, whilst he murmured in deep terror. 

“You have robbed me before of my ship, of my bravest men, and now would 
have my blood ! It is of evil omen to you ! ” 

He trembled, and his eyes seemed to be moistened ; clearly his ferocious soul 
was weakening, and fear had stricken him to the heart. The two peons bore him 
away between them, like an automatic figure, of which the limbs of flesh and bone 
were no more vivified than that of wood. In this supine, hopeless state, the priest 
could in no way prevail on him. Half-an-hour was entirely wasted in unavailing 
pleading. Then came the guard to carry out the prostrated miscreant to meet his doom 
at the dawn of that day when he anticipated he should have the farm at his mercy 

Without resistance, ceasing to tremble but still a weakling, the oncc*dreaded 
bandit allowed himself to be propped up against the palissade. By the morn’s 
early light his figure, firmly set by his wooden leg being fixed in the wet ground, 
his back against the wood, his head on one shoulder, his eyes closed, his white 
lips muttering nothing intelligible, could all be seen by the Indians and his followers 
upon the other eminence. Thence, too, could be discerned the firing party of peons, 
five in number, ranged at a few paces, before Don Benito, who was to give the 
word. The miserable aspect of the lame man, like a buzzard with a broken and 
trailing wing, pitiable despite its loathsomeness, made the Mexican see that he was 
judicious in not hanging the robber; the sight of the single leg twitching in the 
death struggle in air would have appealed to humanity, and Pedrillo el Manco 
would become an exalted legend among the reprobates of the province. 

All was ready. 

A gleam of sunlight irradiated the eorral, and glistened on the wet pickets, and 
yellowed the waxen face of the wretch condemned to death. 

Don Benito looked at the five gun-barrels just catching the sunbeam, and was 
about to give the order for them to fire, when a totally unforeshadowed interposition 
occurred. 

When, during the night, the Apachas at the secret gate had heard the scuffle 
within the enclosure, which denoted how the Mexicans had fallen on the unfortunate 
companions of Pedrillo, they were off at full speed without delay, clearing the moat 
at a tremendous bound. Two of the robbers succeeded in passing through the 
postern, but were overtaken and cut down on the brink of the ditch. After that, 
during the trial of Captain Pedrillo, the environs of the hacienda had not been 
disturbed. At the present moment all eyes within the corral were directed on the 
culprit so soon to expiate his crimes. Nevertheless, the sentries would not have 
permitted a numerous body of enemies to have approached unchallenged. But it 
was another matter as regarded a solitary Apache, who, now hanging by the side 
of his war pony, now leading it, now crawling on alone before, and whistling softly 
for it to join him, came up to the palissade totally unseen and unexpected. In fact, 


The Harvest of the Knife. 


117 


how could the two hundred peons and Mexicans in the farm-enclosure fear anything 
from a solitary red man ? 

Thus had Iron Shirt, for it was the chief who devoted himself to a desperate 
enterprise, reached the outside of the stockade just where the bullets, sure to perforate 
the wood around the death-awaiting bandolero, would salute the unsuspected 
bystander painfully. The woodwork rose some fourteen feet high, effectually 
masking him and his equally as steadily moving steed. He stopped the latter, 
vaulted on his back like a circus-rider, stood up, and all of a sudden the startled 
Mexicans beheld the plumed head, the black -painted face, and the long arm of the 
Apache a* ove the pointed posts, just over the cowering bandit’s form. 

“ Fire 1 ” cried Don Benito. 

But even as he spoke the red arm was extended downwards, the steel-like fingers 
clutched the shoulder of Captain Pedrillo, and he was lifted up with what was a 
prodigious expenditure of force, albeit he was the lighter by a limb than most men, 
clear of the low aim of the peons. Then, caught in both arms of the savage, 
standing on his horse, the Mexican was transferred to the farther side of the barricade. 

It was the deed of an instant, this snatching aloof of the victim. 

Fifty eager men, shaking off their stupefaction, sprang to the stockade, and leaping 
upon shelves, placed there for the purpose, fired on the disappearing pony, burdened 
with the double charge, but gallantly bounding away. 

At the same time, to draw off a second volley from their gallant chief, a number 
of Apaches, and the rebels who ran up the incline as far as the verge of the ditch, 
shot arrows and bullets into the corral. The Mexicans were compelled to drop 
down and retire. 

True to the chivalric creed that a chief’s scalp is to be rescued at any cost, Iron 
Shirt had saved his brother commander. 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE HARVEST OF THE KNIFE. 

With similar fortitude, the American and bis associate had resisted the rain in the 
best shelter the rocks afforded. At least, the relentless downpour had prevented any 
completion of the mounting of the piece, and it was not till full day, after the Apache 
chief had triumphantly brought the Mexican back to the encampment, amid the 
vivas of the rebels, that Garcia’s cannoneers had obtained the fitting elevation. 

This done, the robber lieutenant applied his cigar, after having puffed it into 
active incandescence, to the piece of slow match stuck in the rusty touchhole, and 
embedded there with ample powder to ensure the ignition. 

Gladsden gave the hunter an appealing look, but the latter’s face was immobile 
as a statue’s. He had, therefore, to control his throbbing heart as best he might, 
whilst the match spluttered and hissed like a serpent, and lessened in length. All 
eyes were fastened upon the farmhouse, and the unutterably deep silence which 
pervaded the thousands of enemies to the beset handful was most impressive. 

Hardly had a few seconds, which seemed minutes to all concerned, fled away, 
than the spark reached the powder ; there was a faint flash, then a much brighter 


1 1 8 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


and broader one, and with a gush of flame, as at the opening of an iron furnace- 
door, the old gun awoke from its centuries’ repose, with the roar of a menagerie lion 
that was at last released from captivity. 

Through the rolling smoke the huge round stone, which had been chosen for 
bullet, sped noisily in an arc of trajectory which gave Senyor Stefano much credit, 
and crashed into the farmhouse a little below the roof-edge, knocking three little bits 
of windows into one broad gap. 

An immense shout of savage joy hailed this result, and even the bystanders, 
injured by the splinters of the logs, smashed by the recoil of the gun, forgot their 
hurts in the success. 

Gladsden had leaned forward out of the covert, and seemed on the verge of seeking 
to avenge this hurling of death in amid the Mexican’s home ; but the American 
placed both hands on his shoulders, and dragged him back and downwards. 

“Wait!” said he, grimly. “Before they fire a second ball, our turn to play 
comes in. They will leave powder round loose, will they? I’ll show ’em 1 You 
jes’ hold your hosses — I’ll show ’em to shoot at women and children.” 

Indeed, there was plenty of time for the planning and execution of a counter- 
measure, for the remounting of the foity-pounder, though cheerfully, even merrily, 
performed, was a lengthy labour. 

Mr. Gladsden, chafing at his impotence, fixed his eyes on the farmhouse, where 
the great hole seemed to reproach him for this inaction. There did appear at its 
edges what seemed men at that distance, but the Yaguis immediately showered 
stones and darts on these repairers, who shortly retired. 

The unfortunate victims of the bombardment would have no choice but to put the 
women in the cellars and perish in the ruins, or sally out at a disadvantage when 
the cannon rendered the place quite untenable. 

In the meantime, Oliver, calculating with much exactitude the time required by 
the Mexicans and their assistants to replace the gun on its rests, was splitting a 
length of old pine in halves ; this done, he hollowed out the centre with his knife, 
and soon had a pair of troughs which served very fairly as rocket-tubes. As soon 
as he had finished, his jogging the elbow of the Englishman for him to look, set 
the latter to comprehend in part the hunter’s intention. 

He aided him eagerly to lay the rockets in the hollow of the wood, itself supported 
firmly between the stones, the mouth directed with all the care he would have given 
a shot on which life depended at the powder-canisters. 

It is true that several horses and men came between the mark and the two pro- 
jectiles, but their iron heads would make light of such obstacles, perhaps. 

Enthusiastic at the great result of the first discharge, many of the Yaguis 
swarmed up the slope to see the second discharge more closely, and, spite of orders 
from the guard of the robber captain, they clustered so as to almost impede the 
smiling cannoneer in his second essay. 

Three of the Apaches on their horses on one side, and half-a-dozen Mexicans, 
charged them slowly to bear them back. An opening was made thereby, a vista 
from the two watchers, even to the cannon and its ammunition pile. 

“ It is the time ! touch off'l ” whispered (diver. 

The Englishman gave him a fusee out of his cigar-lights box, and kindled one 
himself simultaneously. The two, with one and the same movement, clapped them 
to the rocket matches, which they had pinched off shojt, and blew at the flames to 
accelerate the burning. 

Engrossed in the application of the fire to the cannon, none of the enemy heard 
this slight crepitation, or saw the thin sparks on the barranca’s crest. 

Almost immediately the match was blazing within each case, and, covering the 
two whites with a shower of sparks, the rockets, slowly at first, but soon far 


The Harvest of the Knife, 


119 


distancing the initial velocity, traversed the intervening space, and deflecting towards 
the ground, rushed noisily through the 1 tile group of robbers, Apaches, Yaguis and 
leaders, into the very heap of powder. The explosion occurred, but, not in the least 
pausing, the rockets continued an erratic flight, ploughing up the ground, ricochet- 
ting, separating, crossing and joining, diffusing silver and ruddy golden fire-balls, 
and thus careering among the amazed multitude till the cases fell as blackened 
coals. 

Meanwhile, the powder which was loose had flared up and frightened the horses; 
then the open tins burst and showered the ground with flaring rain. The full tins 
went off like bombs, and one of them, dislocating the arrangement of timber under 
the gun, upset the whole pile. The cannon, of which the match had been uninter- 
ruptedly burning, went off whilst thus overturned, and the stone ball, perforating a 
herd of the Yaguis, split in three pieces, which fell upon the upturned, curious faces 
of their fellows beneath the hill. 

“ I’m inclined to b’lieve,” remarked Oliver, drawing his revolver, “ that the folks 
on the farm hev’ seen our rockets go off at last.” 

Whilst the smoke was enshrouding the hill top, and the ground still quaking, the 
mounted men who had not been unsaddled, using both hands to restrain their 
terrified steeds, and the unhurt savages flying to and fro and against one another 
in great consternation, the rockets had been truly taken for their signal of action by 
both the Mexican parties, however far divided. 

Out of the wood debouched the mounted Mexicans, shaking their banneretted 
lances as if they were reeds, and shouting “ Mexico for ever ! ” As they came on, 
well thinned out, their swiftness gave them the appearance of a much more numerous 
column. 

“The soldiers 1 the soldiers from Ures! ’’screamed the Yaguis in the hollow. 
“ Look out for yourselves ! the lancers are coming ! ” 

On seeing them in confusion, and shrinking back from all sides so as to form a 
serrie 1 mass under the walls of the hacienda, Don Benito and Don Jorge, each at 
the head of a troop, dashed out of the corral at the main portal and the secret one, 
and executed a dreadful double charge to the cry of “ Down with the rebels ! ” 

The shock of the pretended lancers and the haciendero’s followers on opposite 
sides of the insurgents’ agitated ranks, occasioned a combat; but when the horse- 
men, with spear or cutlass, were intermingled with the footmen, it became slaughter. 
Neither side craved for mercy, and they fought as only men can fight who were 
either masters who feared to lose the upper hand of subjects, or slaves who were 
seeking reprisals for wrongs inflicted on anterior generations. 

Whenever the swaying of the mob brought a mass near the hacienda or its 
stockade, all the defenders within, to whom were added the women, armed with 
obsolete firearms, musketry, and blunderbusses, fired upon them, and added not 
inconsiderably to the dismay and butchery. 

In the interval, on the summit of the hill, where the smoke still lingered from the 
explosions, the salteadors had sought to punish the rocket dischargers, whom they had 
perceived in the rocks and under the pine stumps. It is true that the Englishman 
had most imprudently stood up in order to see what really was the extent of the 
damage done. The Apaches, at a word from Iron Shirt, had descended the hill 
towards the hacienda, rallying their own comrades preparatory to a prudent drawing 
off with all the live stock which might be added to their previously collected dioves. 
They considered the battle lost to them on seeing the immovable Yaguis struck with 
panic, an emotion which extended with marvellous rapidity even to those on the 
other side of the farm, entirely unaffected by actual danger. 

Stunned by the cannon report, a noise too great of its kind to have ever come 
within their experience, the banditti’s horses were found to be unmanageable, and 


120 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


they had alighted, all but their maimed leader, whose steed was less incapable of 
guidance, to punish the authors of the disaster which had turned the tide. 

Three times they made a rush at the natural bulwarks in full belief that they 
could hurl the paltry opposition over, a-down the ravine; but each time their retreat 
was marked by a line of corpses. So near a mark was fatal to the heavy thirty- 
eight calibre repeaters. 

“ This is the second time you are running agen this snag,” taunted the hunter, 
with that bitter loquacity common to him and Indians in the fever of comoat, “ but 
come on agen ! Bless you, that’s on’y an appetiser to the pie to foller ! thar’s roast 
ribs the next dish 1 Come and sweep the platter — only two tender chickens left, 
and plenty of gravy ! Do come now, while the offer is open ! Di I any gentleman 
say, ‘Mercy!’ well, I’m not sparing white skunks to-. lay ! P’raps you’re only 
drawing our fire — loafing round tell we haven’t a cartridge left ! Y es, do walk up for 
a grapple and a hug — we are only the worst kickers you ever seen, that’s all.” 

All this sarcasm was echoed by Pedrillo ; his fury was indescribable, to say 
nothing of the effects of the native brandy which had been given him as a remedy 
after his prostration under the fear of death. When he recognised the Englishman, 
all the pent-up rage of fifteen years inspired him, and his absent leg ached again 
as lively as when it had been torn off by the shark. The gringo, who had sunk his 
ship, after having run away with his bride and his cruiser ; who had taken the 
treasure which the law of robbers assigned to the captain in good part; this im- 
pudent spoil-spoit again had marred the consummation of vengeance upon his 
fellow-foe, Don Benito. He cast all prudence aside ; he himself advanced with his 
surviving men prominently. 

“We’ll bury them in the dry arroyo /” he yelled, foaming at the mouth, and 
his wooden leg beating the horse’s shoulder in his feverish convulsions, “ Down 
with them.” 

What was their surprise to see the two men leap disdainfully over their breastwork, 
and stride towards the eight or ten Mexicans with revolver and knife in hand, spurn- 
ing the dead and wounded due to the same well-plied weapons. 

The bandits slackened their pace, but the mounted leader, still continuing, advanced 
beyond them. They resumed their charge. But already that separation had re- 
solved Gladsden. Forgetting that he had been enjoined to keep side by side with the 
American as long as they faced the Rustlers, and. when the chance-medley came, to 
stand back to back with him, he sprang quickly onward. The now frightened 
Pedrillo aimed at him a terrible sweeping blow of a long sword, such another as the 
hapless guitarero had employed in the tavern. And, though Gladsden parried it 
partially with his knife, the glancing blade cleft his left shoulder. Stung by the pain, 
the Englishman dropped the knife out of the hand, already benumbed by the cut, and 
seizing the protruding wooden-leg of the luckless Terror of the Border, applied him- 
self with such extraordinary vigour to tearing the wretch out of the saddle, that leg, 
man or saddle, was bound to come. It was the leg gave way at its straps, while 
Pedrillo was howling with agony and clinging to the saddle-bow, leaning with all 
his might contrariwise to the tug. On the unexpected release, the captain fell 
heavily over the horse and lay senseless on the ground, which he had reached head 
first. Gladsden caught the flying reins, and bounded upon the steed ; as it flew for- 
ward in fright, two of the salnadois were shouldered aside, and the captain trodden 
upon by the hinder hoof ; but he made no move, never so much as groaned, he had 
died as much from fright as anguish. This magnificent feat of arms, if the seizure 
of the nether limb could be so denominated, completely demoralised the robbers. 

But some of the most courageous Yaguis, and an Apache who had lost a kinsman 
in the explosion as well as a war pony, which he more or less greatly prized, saw 
the white men victorious and the Rustlers about to fly, with a deeper chagrin and 


121 


The Harvest of the Knife. 


enmity. T t y coiiecte.i, by a common impulse, and hemmed in the pair. At their 
fiist shot, Glarisden was unhorsed, the animal falling dead under him ; had it no 
reared at the smart of an airow, the succeeding missiles, which entered its breast, 
must have riddled the rider. He and the American once more stood together with 
only that warm carcase as their buckler to some thirty foes. 

Neither hugged any delusion as to the future. It was materially impossible that 
with their cartridges all spent, they could successfully resist so many inveterate foes, 
who, too, would, at any moment, be reinforced without stint from the Yaguis on the 
hill. 

Indeed, thereupon commenced, with the rush of the Indians, one of those unequal 
contests which are common on the border, and which, when a worthy poet shall 
aiise, will show posterity at what a waste of gallant hearts civilisation has executed 
iti conquests. 

Mute, sombre, back to back so closely that the penetrating lar.ce would have 
spitted the pair, never recoiling so much as a hand’s breadth, plvir g tiie hunting- 
knife for the one, and the sword of Pedrillo in his victor’s grasp for the other, the un- 
flinching couple, like a Janus animated, held out against the ever-onsetiirig foe. 

Any other enemies must have been impressed with admiration. 

Their bared arms were hacked and slit ; the left of Gladsden hung disabled ; but, 
on that side, Oliver’s formidable right hand was performing miracles of valour and 
dexterity enough for both. They streamed with blood, which matted their locks and 
soaked their clothes, dangling in tatters through which their fair skin momently 
gleamed in glaring contrast with that of their dusky foes until dyed ruddy like the rest. 

“ How goes it, paid.?” queried Oliver, in a kind of lyll in the rain of cuts, and 
blows, and thiusts which nothing but the very frenzy of the Indians, each to deal the 
stroke, prevented being fatal a hundred times. “ I’m gitting my second wind myself 
and can go on carving till morning ! ” 

There was no response to the jest; but the Oregonian felt the firm body that had 
been ever so long a rock of support, slowly weighing upon him. Then, alarmed 
for the very first time, or rather instantly inspired with sympathy and wild indig- 
nation at the injustice of so brave a man succumbing under the blows of such 
ignoble creatures, he lifted his voice as an appeal to the rectifier of such abuses, in 
his restricted mind : 

11 Cuss ye, for a heap of dirty niggers ! ’’ he vociferated. “ Six at a time we’d have 
butchered you up hainsum I Whoop-ho ! will no one of the colour of a white man 
let us have ten minutes to recruit; when we’ll thrash them all agen, honest Injin ! ” 

A deep, hoarse laugh at the speech, not at all understood, was the reply. 

But a cry of terror was elsewhere audible. 

“ Something’s coming, my cahooter (paitner),” said O'iver, redoubling his 
gigantic sweeps of the buffalo-butchering knife. “ And never more was a friend 
welcome ! Don’t you lose your grip yet ! ” 

Indeed, without being able to discern the features of the knot of combatants on 
the hill, under the blue canopy of floating smoke, all silent since the two whites had 
exhausted their ammunition, and the close ring of their assailants forbade their 
employing firearms, Don Benito and his sen, with a score of best riders, had taken 
the cow-path and somehow climbed the incline. Coming upon the crest at a little 
distance from the barranca, they formed column, four abreast, and raced to the spot 
of the hand-to-hand struggle. 

« Viva Mexico 1” was their continuous war-cry, with the ancient “ Rally around 
Spain ! ’’ 

’ Oh, viva anything in the way of a ‘ Co,’ ” muttered Oliver, receiving his spent 
ana insensible friend on his arm, and depositing it behind the horse’s body at his 
‘eet. “ You’re like the sogers, you’ve come when the Injins took the scalps.” 


122 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


Happily the attackers turned at this fresh incident. 

Opening out so as to allow the hind ranks to rush forward and form a line with 
the rest, the cavalry fell upon the Indians, and sabred them in the first dish past. 
As soon as they could wheel, which was done on the edge of the barranca by sharp 
reining in and spinning round w ulst the horse’s forehoofs were in air, they returned 
at full speed. But, already, the Yaguis had renounced their wish to finish with the 
two whites and fled, flinging away their weapons not to encumber their flight. 

Alone, wounded, but stubborn, the Apache kn-eling, took aim with his en- 
venomed hatchet at the head of Oregon Oliver, intending to cast it ere he should be 
trampled under the Mexicans. Tne hunter could do nothing, his brain swam, his 
eyes closed with their last vision comprising the exultant visage of the malicious red 
man; his knife slipped out of his gore-smeared and stiffening hand ; he reeled, and 
then, like a giant pine uprooted by a ‘‘norther,’’ fell upon the body of his comrade 
as if to be his shield to the very last. There was just a mean, like a puma’s that 
had defended its cub to the death. 

At the same instant, the tomahawk whizzed forward and would have infallibly 
fleshed itself in him ere he finally rested ; but Benito had buried his spurs in his 
s'eed, which took a prodigious leap. The hatchet gashed the Mexican’s leg, even as 
he stooped forward and drove his reeking blade to the cross-hilt in the bosom of the 
redskin. 

Don Jorge dismounted, and hastened to lift up the two white men, one after the 
other, and force some brandy down their throats. Meanwhile two of their friends 
had ridden after his father, who was seen to have lost control of his steed. 

A silence fell on the hill, broken only by moans of the wounded and calls for 
water. 

All at once there rose a loud cheeiing at the farmhouse; on its roof the ladies had 
collected and were waving scarves and veils. And, as an explanation, there was 
shortly wafted over the valley the music of a cavalry band, strong in brass and 
kettledrum, playing a lively Arragonese jota. The gay notes grated on the nerves 
of the Mexicans on the hill, collected round the sad group of the two whites and Don 
Benito, whom they had assisted off his horse. 

“ The dragoons from the town,” observed one of the party. “ That crowns the 
day. In an hour there will not be one Yagui within view of a telescope.’’ 

Jn fact, the valley was already strewn with plunder, and the dead and the wounded 
not capable of flight, but of living Indians hardly a hundred. The revolt was over. 
Then the field was again animated after this transient desertion, for Father Serafino, 
with peons carrying hand-barrows, came forth to attend to the wounded. Upon 
improvised litters of lances, the European, Oliver, and Benito, all mute and quiet for 
want of strength, were tenderly transported dowrn the hill and up into the hacienda 
hall. 

The little hero of the Angelito was displaced from his throne, the decorations re- 
moved, and the room became a hospital. The ladies had assumed a simple dress 
befitting their suddenly imposed duty, and were obeying the orders of the father, 
who had a knowledge of surgery, like all missionaries. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE TRUE CABALLERO. 

Four days after the defeat of the insurgent*, in his own bedroom of the Hacienda of 
the Monte-Tesoro, Don Benito Vasquez de Bustamente lay extended on the couch 
pale and weak. His dulled eyes were half shut, and only at long intervals did 
they let gleams of consciousness escape. Near him were kneeling his daughter 
and his wife; their daughter-in-law being too ill from her loss and ihe emotion 
of the conflict in which all dear to her were involved, to paiticipate in this addi- 
tional scene of sorrow. 

Sad and silent, Don Jorge, Oliver, and the English gentleman, the latter’s arm in a 
sling, and both the paler from profuse blood-letting:, stood by the bedside. At an altar 
reared in the room, Father Serafino was just finishing prayers, to which the 
servants of the estate, kneeling in the corridors, had fervently responded. 

At length the prostrate Don seemed to revive, for his cheeks were tinged with 
fugitive purple, and his opening eyes were clear. 

“ Weeping? Why do you weep ? ” he asked of his wi r e, who was sobbing, her 
head muffl.d in her black lace rcbozo. “ If my life has not been long, it comprises 
more years of unalloyed bliss than most men enjoy. This day, the Giver of 
all those boons calleth me unto Him. His will be done 1 Have I not been 
permitted to struggle against the prison which, twice menacing my life, only this 
time ovei comes me, so slowly that my affairs are in order, I can thank those 
who contributed to the victory which has saved Sonora from a deluge of blood and 
fire, and 1 can bid you all farewell until we shall meet anew, never to part again, in 
the ever- 'uiing telicay above. Yea, truly,” went on Don Benito, with increased fervour, 
“ heaven has been kinder and more merciful than I merited, since not only has it 
preserved all those who lie closest on my bosom, but my final farewells can be made 
them with a clear voice, and my latest hour is cheered with the presence of the 
friend socheiished of my early years. He came in time to save my darling — and, 
with his valorc us companion, to save us all. Embrace me, my friend,” he con- 
tinued, to Gladsden, as he extended his arms with an effort, “ to thee I owe all those 
long, long happy days which have been mine on this oft-dolorous earth.” 

Gladsden ran his sound arm round him, and held him up against his bosom for 
a moment. Both of them had tears in their eyes. Then he lowered him gently 
back upon the pillow. For upwards of an hour still he spoke with them, en- 
couraging, consoling, and preparing them as much as possible for the painful 
separation. Suddenly he sat up, with his eyes loftily directed, and in a clear voice 
they heard him call out — 

“ Lord God of my fathers, as I have borne myself like them, as a Christian gentle- 
man of the pure strain, receive my soul ! ” and fell, like a log, dead. 

All were kneeling now, and many a sob broke forth, with echoes, along the 
corridor, out to the very patio where the faithful peons mourned. 

Two days afterwards, the Ameiican hunter, repulsing any reward but a watch 
from Donna Perla, a silver-mounted revolver from her brother, and an Indian scarf, 
enriched with pearls, inwrought by Donna Dolores, the donor, for display on 
holidays, or “for a sweetheart ” (at which he smiled), started, jauntily as ever, on 
the best horse on the farm of Treasure Hill to return to the American army posts. 

“Not a mossle of fear,” he replied to Gladsden at his stirrups to the last moment, 
“did you not hear that Apache, whom Don Benito slashed, call me * Comes- 
Whooping-with-Fire ’ — a good enough Injin name to keep this big chief clear of 
bruises till the next fall buffalo-surround. You’ll hev’ a letter from me m the Frisco 
Post-office by the time you git round to Californy.” 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE BEST BAIT TO CATCH APACHES. 

The farewell to the American was still “ warm,” when Don Joige, spi-e of his grief, 
begged Mr. Gladsden to await his return, as he felt bound to “ go up the country ” 
to make sure the rebellion was over. Me had spoken in such a matter-of-fact way 
that the Englishman shared with his wife and sister, and Don Benito’s widow, much 
wonder at his absence being protracted. To have clearly known the reason, and to 
see him again, they would have been compelled to follow him to the very border of 
Sonora and Arizona. 

The Sierra de Pajarros , a broken side piece of the Sierra Madrc, may be said to 
divide on its double water-shed the feeders of the Y agui River and the San Pedro, 
which courses north and west to supply the Gila. It has the most picturesque and 
striking aspect of any mountains in those regions, of old forests and cloud-capped 
peaks. Under the majestic bluffs, the ruins of ancient Spanish settlements crumble 
away, and the mysterious Pimas Indians prowl. 

Nothing so rests the sight and rejoices the heart of wayworn adventurers, saddened 
and wearied by the sandy and salty plains, as these verdant heights. Almost 
ignored, and perhaps not mapped down in ordinary atlases, this Sieira preserves to 
this very day its primeval wildness ; only very few “ traces,” formed more often by 
wild beasts than woodsmen, vaguely and widely apart appears in the brush. Very 
hard to penetrate, and then to move about in with certainty, none but Indians and 
hunters care to have anything to do with its mazes. 

Nevertheless, not far from the Cascade of the Cave, a solitary hunter was tranquilly 
making a meal. It was Don Jorge. In Europe, things are different, for we 
are astonished at a soldier making a good meal before the bartl , and a condemned 
criminal regaling on the eve of execution. Nevertheless, the care of the 
body is logical and conforms to natural laws. If joy or grief is allowed to cut the 
appetite short, the physique weakens, and the mind being counteracted upon, again 
deters the body, and illness, if not death, is the consequence of this deplorable folly. 
I prefer the hunter’s habit. 

Don Jorge finished his ration, and proceeded to smoke cigarettes, in a lounging 
attitude, which recreation he certainly deserved if only to remark the tired state of 
three excellent horses, which were picketed near him, and which, alternately shifted 
on and off from whilst in gallop (a fact not remarkable among Mexicans), had 
borne him almost without check to this remote spot. 

No investigation of the desert which his eyrie commanded, had answered his 
expectations, and he was soon after his third cigarette deep in a slumber pierna 
suella, or with legs at ease, as his countrymen say. 

There was not a breath in the air; the heat was overpowering, so that the birds 
were sleeping with heads under the wing, and the wild beasts could almost be 
heard panting and lolling out their tongues in their lairs. 

Only one continuous sound disturbed the profound calm, and that was the noise 
of those infinitely little beings which never, anywhere, cease to accomplish their 
mysterious missions. 

Two hours thus passed, with Don Jorge slumbering, his face hidden by his 
handkerchief and sombrero to keep off the sun and the gnats, of which myriads 
played catch-who-can with the sandflies. 

All of a sudden the horses, which had stopped grazing and had been mo'ionless 
with lowered heads, as if also taking a nap, shuddered all over, and abruptly 
tossed their manes and pointed their cars. With their fineness of hearing they 


The Best Bait to Catch Apaches. 


125 


were aware of some suspicious sounds. One of them, whose lariat allowed the 
approach, stalked up to his master and utteied a soft and plaintive whinny, as if 
demanding help. However soundly a ranger sleeps, he must be able to wake up 
immediately and with all his senses clear, and the son of Don Benito did so at 
once. The next moment, turning over on his breast, too wary to rise on his feet, he 
had his tifle in hand, ready for action. 

Listening and staring was of no avail. There was nothing far or near to 
justify the animals in their still evident fears. 

It might be a jaguar or a grizzly only that they scented, if not a hostile man, 
but. in any case, Don Jorge took his safeguards. He hid his horses in the brush, 
and, crawling to the very brink of the bluff, scrutinised the plain, his finger on the 
rigger, his ears well opened. 

But a quarter of an hour passed, whilst he remained as if moulded out of the 
clay and merely drying there. 

Bur unexpectedly a tiny black spot under a shining speck which ever accom- 
panied it, flashed on the view afar out of a straggling timbeiland. Soon the 
watcher could be sure it was a mounted man, his rifle gleaming, speeding towards 
him in the maddest naste. He had been clearing obstacles or bursting through 
them without any daintiness as to his garments, tor they w T ere torn by the thorns 
into tatters, and no doubt the swaying from side to side was as much weakness from 
loss of blood as the mere dodging to avoid a pursuer’s missiles. No one else was 
perceptible to the young Mexican; but there must have been enemies in the wood- 
land, running along parallel with the fugitive, for, turning without an anticipatory 
gesture, and stopping his hoise with a terrible tug of the Mexican bit, he fired two 
shots into the cover, bent low, and rode on onoe more. 

“ ’Tis a white man,’’ observed Don Jorge, knitting his brow, “a hunter ! Oh, my 
gracious saint 1 ” he ejaculated, at the height of amazement and pain, “ it is none 
other than Don Olivero i I thought he had taken the regular route for the Pass, 
whilst the Apaches, with our stock, struck off for this trail, and they have met him ! 
I do no' need that plumed head to recognise he is the prey of the Apaches now.” 

He sprang up, regardless of being spied now, and quickly but comprehensively 
studied the scene. 

Oregon Oliver’s last two shots had galled the Indians into unusual daring. 
Three of them, on excellent horses, which the young haeiendero might have known 
as his own, left the wood and sought to keep the hunter in the open, whilst gra- 
dually bearing down upon him. As they flanked him it was not easy for him to 
escape falling victim to one of the three when they saw fit to stop and fire or even 
risk a snap shot in mid-career. 

r Ihe Mexican’s rifle would not carry that distance. To mount and ride as far 
around ns the steepness of the mountain sides compelled was equally as nugatory. 

Instantly a new ide.a struck him, and he was carrying it out. Drawing his cutlass 
he severed the lariats of all three horses close to the picket pin, unfastened the other 
ends at the hobbled hoofs, and spliced the three into one long rope. Securing the 
last loop round a basalt column which a whale’s rush would not have shaken, he 
flung the loose coils over the edge of the cliff, and, ere the end had fallen into the 
perpendicular, his machete between his teeth, the brave quickwitted youth was 
sliding down into the abyss. 

There were some twenty feet to drop at the last thong, but he had remarked the 
crumbling sandstone to be a soft bed and he let go without a pause. 

Meanwhile, the American swinging about like a drunken man, seemed in a des- 
pairing state. Either his ammunition was exhausted at last, or his only hope was to 
reserve his final cartridge for the hand-to-hand encounter, but a matter of 
moments. 


126 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


The emboldened Apaches, at a signal from Iron Shirt, who formed the point of 
the angle of which they were the opening ends, and of which the hunted white 
marked the closing base’s centre, began closing in. 

But at the instant when they levelled their guns under their horses’ necks, as they 
rode suspended on the off-side in precaution of the dreaded breechloader, the sudden 
appearance of the Mexican, like a spider on its thread, sliding down the face of the 
bluff, only remarked by the Apache chief, in whose direct front the feat was per- 
formed, gave the latter a start and he uttered an outcry despite himself. The two 
savages, surprised in turn, suspended their shots, and all three, as well as Oliver, 
none slackening their headlong pace, however, gazed at the man fallen from the 
clouds, and after striking the soft, dry ground with a force that sent up a cloud of 
sand, rebounding and dashing towards them, his bright steel waving overhead and 
his fresh young voice shouting: 

“ Jmtgo ! friend, it is I who am here, praise to God l ’* 

“ Well, I’m durned! ” roared the ranger. 

But, not accustomed to let even so extreme a surprise alter any plan he had traced 
out, he only thought to profit by the brief but deep confusion of the enemies. With 
a nimbleness that perfectly revealed how assumed was his air of lassitude and 
despair, he sat up in the saddle and fired two shots, one to the right, one to the left, 
by a graceful turn of the hips which a queen of the ballet could not have surpassed, 
controlling his steed simply by the pressure of his knees. 

Spite of the emergency, Don Jorge could not repress a cry of admiration. 

One of the Apaches, his horse’s throat cut by the same bullet that penetrated his 
head beyond, fell in a heap under the side of the animal, also thrown and flounder- 
ing in the death agony. The other, perforated in the eye by the lead scattering 
along his own gun which had split the ball, emitted a horrid scream, as he was 
borne, still held by the horsehair loop which detained his foot to the crupper, 
and which is there placeri to enable the rider to hang alongside the pony, back 
towards the thicket, where his brains would soon be knocked out by the masterless 
mustang. 

Iron Shirt was dismayed. He lifted his horse in order to turn and seek the 
covert. But already the unerring marksman was covering him, and he held his 
horse rearing, afraid to fire his last load with two foes before him, and to expose 
himself in the riding away. 

“ Spare him ! ” cried Don Jorge, hoarsely, “ murderer of my father, murderer of 
my little son, I — I, alone, must have his life I ” 

“ Lucky you spoke,” returned Oliver, firing. 

The horse of the chief, struck in the shoulder, roared with pain, so intense was the 
anguish whilst being tortured with the bit, wrenched its head away and fell forward, 
ere rolling on one side. 

The Apaches did not lose his command of sense at the disaster, for he leaped 
clear. But his shield, his lance, and his gun were flung from him, and before he 
could reach the latter. Don Jorge had made a series of prodigious bounds, like a 
tiger, and placed his foot on it. The baffled Indian spiang back as rapidly and 
seized his spear and shield. 

But instantly, careless of ammunition, and featful lest the lance, cast as a javelin, 
would transfix the Mexican only armed with a sword, the hunter fired again. The 
spear, split in half, was left a mere stump in the redskin’s feverish, quivering 
grasp. 

“That’s the style to draw teeth, I judge,” remarked the American, throwing 
himself off his horse, and approaching the pair. 

His last weapon was a machete, and this Iron Shirt, protected by his round 
shield, drew as lie advanced on Don Jorge, 


The Best Bait to Catch Apaches. 


127 


“ I thank you,’’ said the latter. “ Steel to steel ! this is my heart’s desire ! ” 

<c You are going to get a licking, chief,” said Oliver, grimly, as he pulled out a 
corncob pipe, filled it and lit it with unshaking fingers. 

“ So tl ar ain’t no ’casion to thank me for the promise which I give not to inter- 
fere. Fairplay’s a jewel, and you kin wear in your ear all the jewel you’ll win in 
this hyar tussle.’’ 

The Apache wasted no breath in a rejoinder. His lips were parted only for a 
smile, the set grin of a man who had no hope but to inflict all the pain he could on 
an artagonist before he met his inevitable death. He had on his mind not only the 
recent striking down of his aids, but the death of others in the past and on the 
Sonoran plains, due to the American who had shown himself to the Apache caravan 
only, it was now clear, to draw oft a detachment. Like the redman his hatred was 
insatiable, even that slaughter in which he had distinguished himself seemed no way 
to wipe out the final collapse on the heap of slain. But for Don Benito, Oliver 
would have been “ rubbed out ! ” The thought w’as intolerable, and, we see, all 
alone, he had devoted himself to harassing the Indians in their retreat, and lured 
away the chief. The scalp of so renowned a hunter would have been a more 
magnificent trophy than the herd of cattle, to show in the Apache town when the old 
fathers should demand their lost sons. 

Meanwhile, the two men were facing one another, broadsword in hand. 

For his age Jorge was endowed with unwonted powers, but his frame had not 
fully set, and he had an antagonist whose vigour surpassed the common, too. 
Nevertheless, the Mexican was not dismayed, and the hunter took care not to betray 
any apprehe sion he felt as to the result of the terrible duel. If Jorge smiled, it was 
because he relied on his skill and agility. On the farm he had joined in all the 
wrestling and knife play of the Vaqueroes, and Old Silvano had passed him as a 
pupil to whom there was nothing more he could teach. Therefore, the youth, gifted 
with lofty courage and unalterable coolness, believed himself capable of struggling 
with advantage. 

As a kind of chivalrous signal, the Indian slapped his shield resonantly. 

They mutually advanced till their forward feet almost touched. For a moment 
their blades clashed and then the redman, shouting with savage joy, delivered a 
terrific cut. But the air alone was severed, the agile Mexican having shifted his 
position with great celerity. Their first encounter was merely a test of one another’s 
style, on which would be" founded the passage of arms itself. They fell to it anew, 
but this time also, Don Jorge showed incredible quickness ; he eluded the blows, 
parried them or fenced them off with all that dexteiity which a Mexican should 
exhibit in the management of a weapon which is to him what the navaja is to the 
Spanish peasant. With giddy rapidity he spun round the savage ; and when he got 
a cut in, as the phraseology of such sport has it, it was a telling one. The 
shield, however tough the buffalo hide, could not long resist such hearty strokes ; 
sliced ’off into tissue thinness, cleft, gaping wider and wider with its own tension, 
Iron Shirt suddenly cast it at the young man to bewilder him and at the same time 
darted forward. But the Mexican, who uses his blanket sometimes in just the same 
way as a blind, is taught to keep his eyes on his opponent’s, and the ferocious gleam 
in the Apache’s had warned him ; he received the charge firmly ; parried the cut with 
excellent precision, though the rush brought the two heaving breasts in contact, and 
as the Indian receded, lest he should be grappled, he struck in turn. The blow, 
from the handle turning in the grasp a little paralysed by the late ward, came flat 
on the savage’s shoulder and, diverted upwards, removed his ear as clean as if done 
by a surgeon. Iron Shirt yelled with fury. 

« You will never more hear an infant wail, pierced by your coward arrows! 
hissed Don Jorge, leaning forward. “ Come again, and I will sunder the other 1 ” 


128 


The Treasure of Pearls. 


More hideously than before this third meeting ensued. No longer so much on 
the defensive and aggressive, but bent on leaving his mark, the Mexican gave two 
cuts for the other’s each one. Ail of them left a bleeding trace. One would have 
concluded that he meant to hack the redskin’s surface into a chessboard. The 
slashed face of the Apache had lost human semblance; the gashes already were 
swollen, and his eyes were sealing with blood; he groaned with tantalised rage, 
however, more than pain, whilst the Mexican, anticipating his victory ever since he 
had made mincemeat of the buckler, redoubled his hail of steel. Now it was the 
Apache chief who only stood on guard. 

“ There ! ” cried Don Jorge, taking his cutlass in both hands, and pressing 
forward so that their knees knocked, “ that is to avenge my father ! ” 

On receiving this irresistible chopping blow, which beat down his jagged edged 
blade, Iron Shirt lifted up a yell of spite and despair. The steel cleft through all, 
top knot, frontal bone and brow, and, opening his arms, he reeled, half turning, and 
fell without a stir on the blood-besprinkled sands, the machete left in the wound, so 
inextricably had it been driven there. 

Oliver approached, and at the same time bending over the stiffening body and 
patting the panting conqueror on the shoulder, he said : 

“ Ef them doggoned ’Paches was to have seen this fight they would not cross 
into Mexico for a year, I reckon. You’ve fout him squar’ and fa’r, a riggler stand- 
up fight, and you’re a credit to the father, whose wiping out don’t count one for 
them red niggers now, nohow.” 

They sat down there to rest, and Oliver related his adventure. 

“ Ef I on’y had had an idee that the old man’s loss preyed upon you in that sor 
o’ way we mout ha’ got up some pootier trick o’ war! but you’ve sarved him A-one 
and you are entitled to his scalp to hang over your fire-place.” 

Rejecting this trophy, and only despoiling the Indian chief of his weapons, and 
adding to the prize those of the other Apaches, whose hair the hunter had no scruples 
to remove, they climbed the mountain to the horses which came at the haciendero’s 
calls. After spending some hours together in conversation, which they promised to 
renew, “who knows when?” as the Spaniards say — they parted, Oliver resum- 
ing his route. 

When Don Jorge returned home, his revenge sated, he found the English gentleman, 
who then broke away with a great effort from the entreaties of the rich widow and 
her family. He felt the need of loneliness on the ocean to take the edge off his 
acute sorrow. But the memory, thus mournfullv renewed, of his youthful friend- 
ship, so fatally cut short, dwells piously cherished in “ the heart of heart,” and 
there will flourish till he, too, reposes his adventurous body in the grave. 

However, as an author may anticipate as well as record, we may be allowed to 
suggest that there is nothing contrary to logic in the hope that, if ever Donna Perla 
and her mother act on Mr. Gladsden’s urgent invitation, often renewed by letter, for 
them to visit him in England, the Gladsden juniors will have to draw lots for the 
Mexican heiress. Sure is it that they will find nowhere a happier choice, be it for 
wealth, beauty, or rare goodness, than in this tiue “ Treasure of Pearls.’’ 


THE END. 



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condition of the system. 

“Favorite Prescription” is a 
positive cure for the most compli- 
cated and obstinate cases of ieucorrhea, 
or “ whites,” excessive flowing at month- 
ly periods, painful menstruation, unnat- 
ural suppressions, prolapsus or falling 
of the womb, weak feck, “female weak- 
ly'- anteversion, retroversion, bearing- 
efi, \i sensations, chronic congestion, in- 
flammation and ulceration of the womb, 
inflammation, pain and tenderness in 
ovaries, accompanied with internal heat. 

In pregnancy, “Favorite Prescrip- 
tion” is a “ mother’s cordial,” relieving 
nausea, weakness of stomach and other 
distressing symptomj common to that 
condition. If its use is kept up in the 
latter months of gestation, it so prepares 
the system for delivery as to greatly 
lessen, and many times almost entirely 
do away with the suiferings of that try- 
ing ordeal. 

“ Favorite Prescription,” whei* 

taken in connection with the use of 
Dr. Pierce’s Golden Medical Discovery, 
and small laxative doses of Dr. Pierce’s 
Purgative Pellets (Little Liver Pills), 
cures Liver, Kidney and Bladder dJs 
eases. Their combined use also removes 
blood taints, and abolishes cancerous 
and scrofulous humors from the system. 

Treating tlie Wrong Disease.— 
Many times women call on their family 
physicians, suffering, as they imagine, 
one from dyspepsia, another from heart 
disease, another from liver or kidney 
disease, another from nervous exhaus- 
tion or prostration, another with pain 
hero or there, and in this way they all 
present alike to themselves and their 
easy-going and indifferent, or over-busy 
doctor, separate ano distinct diseases, 
for which H3 prescribes his pills and 
potions, assuming them to be such, 
wnen, m reality, they arc all only s?/wp- 
tnms caused by some womb disorder. 
The physician, ignorant of the cause of 
suffering, encourages his practice until 
largo bills are made. The suffering pa- 
tient gets no better, but probably worse 
by reason of the delay, wrong treatment 
and consequent complications. A prop- 
er medicine, like Dr. Pierce’s Favorite 
Prescription, directed to the cause would 
have entirely removed the disease, there- 
by dispelling all those distressing symp- 
toms, and instituting comfort instead of 
prolonged misery. 

“ Favorite Prescription” is the 
only medieino for women sold, by drug- 
gists, under a positive guarantee, 
from the manufacturers, that it will 
give satisfaction in every case, or money 
will be refunded. This guarantee has 
been printed on the bottle-wrapper, and 
faithfully earned out for many years. 
Farge bottles (100 doses) $1.00, or 
six bottles for $5.00. 

jjfW" Send ten cents in stamps for Dr. 
Pierce’s large, illustrated Treatise (160 
pages) on Diseases of Women. Address, 
World’s Dispensary Medical Association, 
{*0, 668 Main gras£T, BUFFALO, A. T, 


Over 9 million worn duriug the past six years. This raarvolons success is due— 
1st.— To the superiority of CORAL! NE over all other materials, as a stiffener for 
Corsets 

2nd. —To the superior quality, shape and workmanship of our Corsets, combined 
with their low prices. 

Avoid cheap imitations made of various kinds of cord. None are genuine unless 
“DR. WARNER’S CORALINE ” is printed on inside of steel cover. 

FOB SALS BT ALL LEADING MERCHANTS. 

WARNER BROTHERS, 359 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 







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